Health workers urged to suspend intended strike

Accra, Feb. 1, GNA - A health focus pressure group, on Thursday, appealed to health workers threatening to embark on strike to demand better conditions of service, to give the government appellate body more room to resolve their grievances.
Mr Eric Osei Annor, spokesman for the group, "Love Your Neighbour," told a press conference in Accra that the appellate body had asked government to renew its mandate in order to resolve the stalemate. Health workers had threatened to embark on indefinite strike on Monday, February 6, if government failed to meet their demands. Mr Annor said grievances over enhanced working conditions could only be resolved through dialogue and not through strikes, which always led to needless deaths of patients.
He said workers in the health sector had been given the privilege to negotiate for better conditions of service outside the framework of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure.
Mr Annor said the lives that were lost through previous industrial actions couldn't be underestimated as it impacted negatively on the political and socio-economic development of the country. "We cannot go on like this," he said.
Mr Annor said the intended industrial action was also ill timed since it was very close to Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebrations, which fall on March 6.
He said the group would use legal and other legitimate means to discourage the intended strike action.
"While it is important to champion the cause of the working masses, it is equally important that the working people care for the people whose taxes are used to pay them," he added.

Accra, Feb. 1, GNA - A health focus pressure group, on Thursday, appealed to health workers threatening to embark on strike to demand better conditions of service, to give the government appellate body more room to resolve their grievances.
Mr Eric Osei Annor, spokesman for the group, "Love Your Neighbour," told a press conference in Accra that the appellate body had asked government to renew its mandate in order to resolve the stalemate. Health workers had threatened to embark on indefinite strike on Monday, February 6, if government failed to meet their demands. Mr Annor said grievances over enhanced working conditions could only be resolved through dialogue and not through strikes, which always led to needless deaths of patients.
He said workers in the health sector had been given the privilege to negotiate for better conditions of service outside the framework of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure.
Mr Annor said the lives that were lost through previous industrial actions couldn't be underestimated as it impacted negatively on the political and socio-economic development of the country. "We cannot go on like this," he said.
Mr Annor said the intended industrial action was also ill timed since it was very close to Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebrations, which fall on March 6.
He said the group would use legal and other legitimate means to discourage the intended strike action.
"While it is important to champion the cause of the working masses, it is equally important that the working people care for the people whose taxes are used to pay them," he added.