The Executive Director of Africa Center of Health Policy Research and Analysis (ACHPRA) implores government to temper justice with mercy and urgently address the demands of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, and Allied Associations.
Dr. Thomas Winsum Anaba, the Executive Director, made his appeal after the Public Relations Unit of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) stated that members of the GRNMA and Allied Associations are being inconsiderate in embarking on the strike action.
He said, “it is very imperative that government listens to their grievances and address them quickly to the best of their ability”.
Dr. Anaba further added “I have heard some of their demands that are very interesting and I think there should have been a solution to this long ago. We are appealing to them to temper justice with mercy”.
In a letter issued to the press on the 21st September, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission indicated that a four-week period was agreed upon by the two parties to make firm decisions on the ongoing proposal.
“Both parties therefore quickly agreed to a four (4) week time frame where concrete decisions would be taken on the outstanding proposals and also agreed to keep these out of the media for the duration of negotiations. The Government Team is therefore at a loss as to why the GRNMA decided to declare an industrial action effective 21st September 2020, contrary to our underlying agreement reached on 16th September 2020”.
Expressing their discontentment on the approaches used by the GRNMA, the FWSC stated “Per the Rules of Engagement signed and dated 29th July 2019 at the inception of the negotiation process, parties agree that they will refrain from going to the press while negotiations are ongoing”.
Going forward, the FWSC has referred the situation to the National Labour Commission (NLC) in response to which the Commission has issued an Interlocutory Injunction directing them to call off the strike.
However, this interlocutory injunction has not been duly served to the GRNMA and Allied Associations.
According to GRNMA, the meeting between the GRNMA Labour Consultant and the Employer was “an informal discussion”. In the said the meeting, the “employer only sought to understand why the GRNMA team embarked on a strike action from 21st September, 2020 and therefore it was not a meeting to continue the negotiation contrary to the agenda”.
On the Monday 21, September, members of the GRNMA and Allied Associations withdrew their services in demand for better service conditions but this did not sit well with the fair wages and salaries commission.
According to the GRNMA and Allied associations “all efforts to get government to address their concerns have proved futile” contrary to what the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has made public.
The leadership of the GRNMA encourages all Nurses, Midwives, Physician Assistants and Certified Registered Anesthetists to join the “struggle for better conditions of service”.
It is the hope of the Striking associations that the strike action would send the message and “trigger an immediate response” from the employer.
