We’ll not condone any unfair labour practice – MELPWU cautions

• Medical Laboratory Professional Workers' Union are unhappy that their employer is belittling others and endorsing unnecessary turf wars

• The group indicated that work within the health sector is teamwork where no man cannot do it all alone. It is there important for the employer to take interest in building team spirit among the workers

• The group added Medical Laboratory Professionals are capable of leading their trade

The Medical Laboratory Professional Workers’ Union (MELPWU) has served a warning that the Union will not in any way “condone such an unfair labour practice”.

According to the group, work within the health sector is teamwork where no man cannot do it all alone. It is there important for the employer to take interest in building team spirit among the workers rather than belittling others and endorsing unnecessary turf wars.

"Medical Laboratory Professionals are capable of leading their trade. The GMA should not think because their members occupy managerial positions in the hospital so Medical Laboratory Professionals will stand aloof for them to use Management’s prerogative to appoint one of their own to head the Laboratories."

The group in a press statement indicated that health professionals are regulated by the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (ACT 857).

Under the law, professions in the health sector are distinct and have no role to conflict with another, therefore, the Management of KATH does not have the legal backing to make one profession a subservient of the other.

“MELPWU is forced to condemn in the strongest terms the confusion being fuelled in the health sector by Management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) with support coming from the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

“No profession is a ‘jack of all trades’. The professionals are trained and licensed to practice specific jobs.

“One man cannot do it all alone. It is therefore important for the employer to take interest in building team spirit among the workers rather than belittling others and endorsing unnecessary turf wars. Medical Laboratory Professionals are capable of leading their trade,” the release stated.

The Union, however, showed their unwavering support and solidarity for their colleagues at KATH and called for the support of all other Medical Laboratory Professionals across the country.

MELPWU further called on the Ministry of Health, the Government of Ghana, the National Labour Commission and all relevant stakeholders in the sector to urgently intervene to forestall the looming nationwide industrial action.

The Medical Laboratory Scientists and allied professionals at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) declared a strike on May 19.

This was after a decision by the hospital’s Management to post two medical officers, Lesley Osei and Eunice Agyemang Ahmed, to the Laboratory Services Directorate, to fill vacancies there.

The two have been appointed as Clinical Haematologists at the Laboratory Services Directorate.

They argue that members of the Association who qualify for the vacant positions have been sidelined.

Read below the full statement.