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| Single Spine Blues: Doctors Warn Of Disharmony In Health Sector…As They Petition Mills |
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| Date: 27-May-2012 |
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The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has indicted some state institutions for woefully failing to see to the amicable resolution of the migration of doctors onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The group says since they were migrated onto the SSSS in January, there have been grievous and erratic distortions in their salaries, yet complaints to the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), have been ignored.
The GMA insists this is clearly shows a lack of commitment on the part of those managing their migration onto the SSSS to see to the speedy resolution of their problems.
Cataloguing a litany of concerns which were contained in a statement issued at the end of the 3rd National Executive Council (NEC) Meeting, the GMA threatened to advice themselves if the relevant stakeholders fail to resolve their grievances.
According to the GMA, there have been inconsistencies in the monthly salaries paid to doctors since January this year. The association is also accusing the FWSC of unilaterally instructing the CAGD to pay doctors 2012 Market Premium as an absolute figure based on 2011 basic salaries.
The GMA says this is in direct contravention of the National Labour Commission (NLCs) orders issued during the compulsory arbitration process between the FWSC and the doctors.
“Since January 2012, there has been withdrawal of payment of the Conversion Difference, which is the difference between the basic salary on the previous salary structure (Health Service Salary Structure – HSSS) and the current salary structure (Single Spine Pay Policy - SSPP) in situations where the latter is lower. This has resulted in reduced Social Security contributions and hence reduced future pensions contrary to International Labour Organization (ILO) regulations and the rules governing the SSPP,” President of the association, Dr K. Opoku-Adusei told Peacefmonline in an interview at the end of the press conference.
On October 7 last year, the GMA staged a nationwide strike following the inability of the FWSC to provide unequivocal evidence of migration of doctors onto the SSSS and the ambiguous stance of the SSS Secretariat on the positions of District Directors of Health Service and Medical Superintendents.
That industrial action, which lasted for some 18 days, was called off after persistent appeals by civil society organizations and a meeting with President Mills.
At a meeting with the President in 2011, the association was impressed upon to let the institutions of state work. The GMA was thus made to go for a compulsory arbitration process with the NLC superintending. But the group is alleging that decisions arrived at during the compulsory arbitration have been largely disregarded and the NLC’s directives spurned.
Dr Opoku-Adusei said the GMA has therefore decided to among other issues petition President Mills for immediate intervention and to also lodge an official protest with the NLC.
“If after two (2) weeks there is no clear evidence pointing to the resolution of these problems, the GMA will put in motion series of actions that may disturb the industrial harmony in the health sector,” he said.
It however remains unclear if the GMA will stage another strike action. |
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| Source: Nana Kwadwo Asante/Peacefmonline.com |
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