Dotors to embark on strike action

Ho, May 26, GNA-The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says its patience over the inability of government to adjust salaries of public sector doctors and dentists in conformity with the 2006 salary structure agreement was ebbing and might declare an industrial action soon. A press statement issued at the end of the third National Executive Council Meeting of the Association at Sogakope from 23 to 25 May this year said if that happened the public should hold government responsible for the consequences.

Dr E. Adom Winful, President and Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, General Secretary signed the statement, which was distributed to the media in Ho on Monday.

It said though the Health Service salary structure approved by government, which is the basis of the payment of salaries for doctors and dentists, was being implemented since 2006, salaries of doctors and dentists had not been "adjusted upwards as done for other public sector workers".

The statement said the GMA had made numerous efforts through respective dialogue meetings, communiqu=E9s, both formal and informal discussions with relevant members of government but "government still refuses to review and adjust upwards the salaries of doctors and dentists in Ghana".

It listed the Ministers of Health, Finance and Economic Planning, key officers in the Office of the President, the National Labour Commission and President J.A Kufuor, as individuals and organizations the Association sought audience with over the issue.

"Unfortunately, the government represented by the Ministry of Health continues to avoid the GMA and has been deliberately refusing to conclude discussions and sign a finalized Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which has been jointly prepared, reviewed and agreed upon by the GMA and the Ministry of Health," the statement affirmed. As a result, the issue of salary review and other major employment issues between the membership of the GMA and government, which would have been solved by the memorandum, remained raging issues. The Doctors and Dentists representative body said it had acted in conformity with the labour laws of Ghana in trying to resolve the issues and was still committed to going by the rules but was disappointed by the inability of government to meet its side of the bargain. It said the association was therefore now exasperated and could resort to a strike action to press home its demands.

"The membership of the GMA has reached the end of its tether and is being pushed to exercise their rights to resort to industrial action... since government had shown itself not to respect past decisions and commitments made through dialogue," the statement said.