Korle Bu Maintenance Unit threatens strike
Workers at the Maintenance Engineering Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra are up in arms against the management of the hospital over the non-payment of their tools allowance since January 2016.
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Consequently, the workers have given the management up to February 28, 2017 to pay all the arrears, else they will embark on an indefinite strike.
The department is primarily responsible for general maintenance and repair works at the hospital.
According to the about 120 workers, the management of Korle Bu had decided to ignore their demands for the payment of their tools allowance, even though the workers of other departments in the hospital had received theirs.
“We have not been paid our tools allowance for more than 12 months, even though our colleagues in other departments have received theirs. We have discussed this issue with our management but they seem not to pay attention to us,” one of the workers told the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity.
According to him, they had held series of meetings with the leadership of the hospital concerning their situation, but nothing concrete had been done about it.
“When we first discussed the issue with them, they told us that they would address the problem but we have waited for months and nobody seems to be minding us,” the concerned worker said.
Asked whether they had reported the issue to the Ministry of Health or the Ghana Health Service, he said: “We thought this issue could easily be addressed without having to involve the minister, but it appears we were wrong. We have, therefore, decided to give the management up to the end of February 2017. If nothing is done about our tools allowance by then, we will proceed on our intended strike.”
No response
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr Mustapha Salifu, said he was yet to be briefed on the issue and, therefore, declined to comment.