General News of Sunday, 7 April 2013
Source: citifmonline
Head of Public Affairs of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Earl Ankrah, has described the move by doctors to embark on a new strike as a “panic attack” aimed at forcing the Commission into making hasty decisions.
He said the striking doctors can’t force the hands of the Commission into taking hasty decisions since there are laid down rules that the medical association has chosen to ignore.
“We are not happy about the doctors’ strike; prior to the institution of the Fair Wages and Salary Commission and the Single Spine Salary Structure some of these groups have had their way with government in the past; they threaten strike action and then the government shiver and give them what they want,” he said.
According to Mr. Ankrah, now it is no longer a sitting government issue; “it is an institution set up by law, independent, taking decisions on salary administration.”
“It is a stage we all have to go through to determine whether teachers and indeed doctors deserve preferential treatment when it comes to these things,” he added.
“The last time I checked the law said when it comes to essential services of that nature they are treated with the urgency it deserves, which we did; the law never said give them whatever they want,” he noted.
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has declared it will not attend to out-patient cases at government hospitals beginning on Monday, April 8, 2013.