Accra, Dec. 12, GNA
– The Health Service Workers Unions (HSWU) has called on the authorities to
immediately resolve all their concerns to avoid any industrial action.
The unresolved
concerns include non-implementation of their Collective Agreement, Market
Premium, denial of incremental notches, non-adherence to National laboratory
Policy, discrimination in Health Insurance, wrongful placement of Medical
Physicists and distortions in the grading of the Allied Health Professionals.
In a Resolution endorsed
by all the 16 Regional Industrial Relations Officers and 30 Health Professional
Associations under the Union, the health workers called on the Ministry of
Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Fair
Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant General’s
Department to immediately resolve all their grievances.
“We will advise
ourselves according to the language they best understand because the deadline
given by the National Leadership and the Presidents of the Various Professional
Associations at our last press conference held at Cleaver House in Accra has
not been given the attention it deserves,” it added.
The HSWU comprises
all health workers, except doctors, nurses and midwives, anesthetics and
pharmacists.
The Resolution,
copied to the Ghana News Agency, stated that the Union felt marginalised
despite the tremendous services they rendered to achieve holistic and
comprehensive healthcare delivery.
“Our grievances are
mostly not given the attention it deserves, meanwhile, healthcare can never be
complete without our services.”
“A Collective
Agreement was signed between Health Agencies and Facilities under the Ministry
of Health and the Health Services Workers’ Union of TUC Ghana in December, 2015
in accordance with the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651); The Collective Agreement,
which takes precedence over any other existing agreement, was to take effect
from January 01, 2016.”
“Health facilities
are currently either not implementing or undertaking selective implementation.
This is mainly attributed to the fact that its implementation is dependent on
Internally Generated Funds (IGF) from individual health facilities whose IGF are
woefully inadequate or nonexistent. It is worth noting that some category of
health professionals have their condition of service consolidated in their
salary and paid from Controller and Accountant General”.
“With the
introduction of the Single Spine Salary Structure, Market Premium was
introduced as a percentage of our base pay to take care of the Cost of Living
Allowance and Additional Duty Hour Allowance that formed part of our
remuneration as health workers. The Market Premium by convention is to change
as and when salaries are reviewed. The Market Premium has been static since
2012 and not corresponding with our current salaries.”
“The freeze of the
Market Premium by our employer is very arbitrary and discriminatory compared to
other public servants who earn market premium.”
The Resolution
stated that due to the absence of a regulatory council, absence of laws
regulating the Allied Health profession, and members not writing licensure
examination, some of the members were not properly placed on the Single Spine
Salary Structure in 2012.
It said those three
conditions were fulfilled by the promulgation of Act 857 in 2013, yet the
distortion and low grading had still not been corrected.
That unfortunate
action was at variance with the spirit and letter of Single Spine Pay Policy
and should be reviewed to commensurate with their current salaries.
On the issue of
Incremental Notches, the Resolution said without any justification, some
members had been denied yearly incremental since they were migrated in
2012
It, therefore,
called on the appropriate authorities to address their concerns and ensure that
there was fairness in the health system.
GNA
