Accra, Aug. 6, GNA - The Health Services Workers Union (HSWU) on Wednesday expressed dismay about the exclusion of public health sector workers from the 17 per cent salary adjustment agreed between government and organised labour in July.

A statement issued in Accra by the General Secretary of the HSWU, Mr Abu Kuntulo said since June, 2006, members of the union had not benefited from any salary increment until May 13, this year when a seven per cent pay adjustment was offered them. The statement said the money was yet to be paid. It said public sector workers however, received three consecutive salary adjustments spanning 2007 when they received 20 per cent, 15 per cent in 2008 and 17 per cent for 2009.

The statement said these anomalies were examined at the union's two-day National Executive Council meeting in Tema. In a communiqu=E9 issued after the meeting the union pointed out that whereas no adverse reports had been made against any of their members since June 2006, it was sad that their salary increments had been frozen by the government without any justification.

The communiqu=E9 indicated that the public health sector still played critical roles in the country's health delivery system, hence its recognition as an essential service provider under sections 162 and 175 of the Labour Act , 2003 (Act 651). It recalled that the implementation of the Health Sector Salary Scale -2 (HSS-2) in 2006, revealed so many discrepancies which were yet to be resolved. "These discrepancies include irregularities, distortions, wrongful placements of grades and pay levels to the extent that some of their members had been made worse in terms of real values of their remuneration due to soaring inflationary trends."

The union pointed out that in 2007 when the HSS-2 underwent major corrections, a lot of compromises and sacrifices were made by the body and the entire health workers leading to the surrendering of a whole year's salary arrears as a goodwill gesture.

The agreement took into consideration the economic situation at the time, which was captured in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in June 2006 between the government and the health workers group. The statement said in another MOU concluded between the union and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Teaching Hospitals Negotiating Team, it was agreed that the payment of the seven per-cent salary increase for 2008 should be paid in three instalments from June to August 2009, but regrettably the government unilaterally amended the agreed conditions in fragrant violation of the negotiated terms. It urged the Ministry of Health and the GHS to implement the already negotiated seven per-cent salary increment for 2008 to avoid any unforeseen industrial disharmony.

It called on the National Labour Commission to take note of the violation and ensure that the salary increment and arrears due to its members were paid without any further delay. 06 Aug. 09