EXPEDITE ACTION ON SALARY NEGOTIATIONS (SPREAD)

THE Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called on the Ministry of Health and the government to expedite action on the salary negotiations of health workers to avert any possible unrest in the health sector.
It also urged all labour unions to unite in an effort to ensure that issues pertaining to salaries and conditions of service of workers in the country went through the necessary consultative processes, in line with the provisions and tenets of the National Labour Law.
That, according to the association, would ensure that whatever salary structure would be proposed by the government would be thoroughly negotiated, not just with the GMA but all the trade unions representing the labour front in the country.
The President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, made the call at a press briefing at the end of the second National Executive Council meeting of the association in Koforidua last Sunday.
“We call on the government to be more proactive in bringing unresolved salary negotiation issues to a speedy conclusion and never wait until near-crisis level before making a move, as has always been the practice, and that we are in no mood to wait or negotiate ad-infinitum,” he stated.
Dr Winful said the salaries of health workers, including doctors, had not been reviewed for the past four years, although all other public sector workers had had their salaries reviewed annually within the period.
“This problem has pertained, in spite of the eroding effects of inflation and in clear breach of our memorandum of understanding with the government,” he stated.
According to him, although negotiations with the government started last year, they failed to reach a conclusion and that three months into 2009, the government had again failed to take concrete steps to address the issue.
On the single spine salary structure (SSSS), Dr Winful indicated that while the association was not in principle against it, “we should ensure that placement on this structure will be based on a comprehensive job evaluation study which, luckily, has been done by consultants appointed by the government”.
He explained that while the GMA, from the onset, was part of the consultative committee established to consider the process, “we do not have any knowledge of the final document for the implementation of the structure”.
“For this reason, we are hopeful that the government will thoroughly consider the relative of salary structures among the various health professionals to ensure that the implementation of the initiative will not be to our disadvantage,” he added.
On the posting of doctors to deprived communities, Dr Winful expressed the GMA’s disappointment at the decision of the Ghana Health Service to punish doctors who allegedly refused posting to rural communities.
“Let us, for the records, state unambiguously that in principle the GMA does not oppose the adoption of a wide range of policies to address the real challenge of inequitable distribution of health workers in the country,” he stated.
He, however, indicated that the inequitable distribution of doctors to rural areas in the country had put doctors who found themselves in such areas at a disadvantage, as they did not have the opportunity to upgrade themselves, compared to their colleagues serving in the various teaching hospitals.
He also added that with the current system, newly qualified doctors who ought to be perfecting their skills under more experienced senior colleagues many a time found themselves posted to facilities where there was no one to supervise them or to consult in times of difficulties.