GMA considers strike action (Front Page)

THE National Executive of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it has lost the courage to restrain its aggrieved members who are considering the last option to embark on a nationwide strike because of unpaid allowances.
It said the outcome of any such action, should it occur, should be placed squarely at the doorstep of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and, for that matter, the government, not the GMA.
The leadership of the association, therefore, directed all its members to stand by for further directions expected after a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Saturday, March 29, 2010.
The GMA is made up of about 2000 medical and dental practitioners working in the public sector.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, pointed out that the situation had arisen because several attempts by the executive, including meetings with the MoH and complaints to the National Labour Commission (NLC), to resolve the issue of unpaid “on-call-duty-facilitation allowance” had not yielded results.
He said the proposed “on-call-duty-facilitation allowance” which was agreed on and sealed with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as far back as May 26, 2009 had so far not been paid.
A copy of the MoU shown to this reporter stated, “Arrears in respect of the above salary increment and the said allowance shall be paid in two tranches in July and August 2009.”
Unfortunately, Dr Winful said, the agreement had so far been ignored, in spite of numerous reminders sent to the MoH.
Giving further explanation to the issue, he said on May 26, 2009, an MoU was signed between the MoH and the GMA to try to bring to an end protracted issues affecting the conditions of service of medical doctors and dentists.
He stated that in the said MoU, it was agreed that “effective January 2009, 10 per cent of the basic salaries of doctors, including house officers, shall be paid to them as on-call-duty-facilitation allowance”.
He said the MoU indicated that in view of budgetary constraints on the government, “the said allowance shall, in the case of doctors housed in official government accommodation, be forfeited, while the same percentage of basic salary shall be paid to doctors not housed in official government accommodation”.
Dr Winful, however, indicated that up to date that agreement had not been fulfilled and doctors living in government accommodation continued to pay 10 per cent of their basic salaries as rent, while those living in private homes had not received the 10 per cent duty facilitation allowance as promised.
He said instead of fulfilling its part of the agreement, the government, through the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), was demanding from the GMA the list of all doctors living in government bungalows before the payment could be made.
He maintained that the list could easily be accessed at the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department because the department effected monthly deductions for the payment of the rent and, therefore, had the data.
He stressed that in spite of that fact, the GMA still agreed to help by coming out with the data covering nine regions and part of those in the Greater Accra Region but, strangely enough, the FWSC came out to say that the data was not reliable and could, therefore, not be used.
Dr Winful stated that members of the GMA had come to the conclusion that there was a deliberate attempt on the part of the government not to effect the payment, hence the numerous excuses.