A member of the Communications team of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), Fred Agbenyo says the National Labour Commission (NLC), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and all authorities in the health sector should be “proactive” in order to ward off any future dangers in the sector.
According to him, the stakeholders should be “proactive so that they won’t push the health sector workers to the extent that they will go on strike.”
Speaking on Peace FM’s morning show “Kokrokoo”, Fred Agbenyo told host Tweneboah Koduah, that the appropriate authorities in the health sector should put the necessary structures in place in order to address the concerns of the medical doctors in the country.
The doctors have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike on Monday, February 18, 2013 if the FWSC does not rectify the inconsistencies in their salary scheme.
They complain that the FWSC has not heeded to their grievances in relation to the Single Spine Salary Scheme.
According to the General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Serebour, the grading of district directors and medical superintendents was referred to the Ghana Health Service Council on November 4, 2011 by the National Labour Commission but has since not been resolved.
He explained in a Daily Graphic publication that the “positioning of the association was that any doctor being made a medical superintendent or district director had to maintain his or her grade.”
“Thus, a specialist being made a medical superintendent would still retain the grade of specialist, but would not assume a lower grade upon assuming the position of medical superintendent or district director.”
But Dr. Frank Serebour stated that the arrangements stipulated by the association have not been met by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and this has therefore necessitated the doctors’ strike notice.
Reacting to the strike action, Fred Agbenyo pleaded with the health sector workers to revoke their decision stating that “strike should not be the last object” when the workers identify some lapses in the work of the Labour Commission and the health authorities.
He explained that any time medical doctors embark on strike, several patients lose their lives adding that strike actions can be revoked but the lost lives are irreversible.
“How can we reverse something that is damaged? How can we pay the price? So, we will plead; this (strike) is not a good weapon to be used all the time. We will plead, let us use other means to resolve some of these issues.” he pleaded with the health workers.
He appealed to government, National Labour Commission and all stakeholders in the health sector to come to a consensus in order to resolve the conflict.