Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Wednesday,
August 05, 2015
The chaos in the public health sector may not be ending anytime soon
because there is no money to meet the demands of the workers, especially those
of the striking doctors who are in day seven of the strike.
Three deaths have so far been recorded at the Korle-Bu Teaching
Hospital as a result of the strike.
According to Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna
Iddrisu, the government is ‘overstretched’ in its finances to accede to the
demands of the workers in the interim.
He said bluntly that the government did not have the resources to
meet all the demands of the striking workers, even if the requests are
legitimate.
“Further, it is important for Government to conduct a financial
analysis of the impact of any such conditions of service on Government
expenditure in order not to adversely affect the annual budget approved by
Parliament,” he said.
Several government workers, including doctors in public health
facilities and pharmacists, are on strike but attending to only emergency
situations after failed promises to meet their demands.
Mr Iddrisu said the economy is constrained to accommodate any labour
unrests based on remuneration - painting a picture of financial crisis
situation.
The IMF had already warned the government against high wage bill.
The minister maintained that
the doctors made some 14 demands: “some we are able to accommodate; some
partially, others we were not able to accommodate at all.”
He rather asked the doctors to return to the negotiating table so
that the differences would be ironed out.
Mr Iddrisu stated that as a result of the need to maintain equity
and fairness in public sector remuneration, especially in order not to
jeopardise the recently implemented Single Spine Pay Policy, it had become
necessary for government to seek the advice of the Fair Wages and Salaries
Commission (FWSC) on the demands put forward by the doctors.
GMA Surge
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) is leading the charge with
demands for improved conditions of service as well as pensions. According to the
members, the government had failed to finalise a document spelling out their
conditions of service by the end of July 2015, which was the deadline set by
the association.
The GMA issued the ultimatum to strike as far back as November last
year, and once the June 2015 deadline elapsed, they swung into action.
Doctors’ Demands
Part of the doctors’ demands include 40% of basic salaries as
accommodation allowance per month, 20% as core duty facilitation allowance, 30%
clothing allowance, 20% maintenance allowance, 20% utility allowance, 50% as
professional allowance and 25% special risk allowance and vehicle tax
exemption.
NDC Propaganda
The proposal has been described as ‘outrageous’ by some sections of
the public, particularly National Democratic Congress (NDC) communicators, but
the doctors have accused the presidency of deliberately releasing its
propagandists to cause them public disaffection.
The NDC propagandists have cynically urged the government to sack
the doctors and bring in medical professionals from Cuba; but the doctors have
called their bluff and said they were even prepared to resign en-bloc if their
demands were not met.
Unlawful Strike
The government is still insisting that the strike action by the
doctors is ‘unlawful’ and has appealed to them to resume work to pave way for
negotiations.
"The action of the doctors is unlawful. We cannot negotiate
under coercive environment," Haruna Iddrisu told Joy FM yesterday.
In a road map, the doctors
are withdrawing their OPD services for a week after which emergency services
will also be withdrawn if government fails to address their grievances.
The minister said that it was rather ‘disappointing’ that the
doctors, in the middle of negotiations, decided to withdraw part of their
services.
He said the strike is disastrous for the country because if the
outstanding issue is resolved the lives that are lost as a result of the strike
cannot be recovered.
Other Strikes
To complicate matters, nurses of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and
Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) have also laid down
their tools.
In just a month, about five different public employee groups - the
majority of who are from the health sector - have either gone on strike or
threatened to do so over poor remunerations.
AG’s Department
State Attorneys at the AG’s Department eventually called off their
strike after almost a month, granting the government what looks like a
temporary reprieve.
The over 150 lawyers have, however, threatened to resume the industrial
action if their demands for improved conditions of service are not met.
They submitted to compulsory arbitration at the National Labour
Commission and have issued a 14-day ultimatum to the arbiter to sort out their
demands with the government.
IMF Conditionalities
Ghanaians are in for austere times as the agreement entered between
the NDC government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to bite
hard.
Already, the IMF has ordered
a freeze on public sector employment, even though the government continues to
deny that fact.
Interestingly, the recent three-year loan agreement between Ghana
and the IMF contained a freeze on public sector employment and limits the
government to increase the wage bill to not more than 10% - a move that labour experts
say will trigger (labour) agitations since they all want more than 10% on the
negotiation table.
The IMF is also asking the government to withdraw subsidies on
utilities and petroleum products (which is already being implemented) and the
Breton Wood institution expects that the measures will lead to savings of 2% of
GDP.
Cash Squeeze
What makes the current situation a challenging one is that these
aggrieved workers are protesting at a time the government seems to be saddled
with a cash squeeze.
Prices of petroleum products keep rising and the cedi continues to
underperform, coupled with an ongoing energy crisis (dumsor); and it appears
the overstretched workers are not able to hold on to the rising cost of living
anymore.
Dead Goat
President John Mahama has already stated that he will not give in to
the demands of workers, especially getting to the 2016 elections, claiming that
he had seen the worst of such actions in the three years of his administration,
hence his ‘dead goat’ analogy.
Some critics of the government have said the strike chorus appears
to be the only language the Mahama-led NDC administration understands.
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