Pharmacists call for resolution of service condition issues- threaten strike by July 20
Public sector pharmacists have served notice to resort to an industrial action by July 20, 2016 if the government fails to resolve issues relating to their conditions of service, interim market premium and grading structure.
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The warning was given by the General-Secretary of the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA), Mr Emmanuel Nana Owiase, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, during which he expressed the association’s frustration over the manner in which government agencies had treated the concerns of the association since 2010.
Giving the background to a press statement signed by the National Chairman, Mr Agyemang Badu, and issued in Accra on July 10, 2016, Nana Owiase emphasised that the executive would not hesitate to heed calls by their members for any form of action to press home their demands.
Issues
On the grading structure of members, Nana Owiase explained that a court ruling during the tenure of Ms Sherry Ayittey as Minister of Health in 2013 had provided a road map but that had not been adhered to.
He disputed the fact that the 2013 policy on market premium dealt with any issues by workers on the enjoyment of market premium, since the policy now made it the preserve of the employer to pay the premium and not the employee to demand it.
He explained that for GHOSPA, some issues relating to its interim market premium needed to be resolved before the policy could be said to cover the members in its present form.
Moreover, he pointed out that pharmacists in public universities were enjoying a market premium way above that of other pharmacists in the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Nana Owiase maintained that all other associations in the health service sector, such as the Ghana Medical Association, the Health Services Workers Union and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, had been enjoying benefits under their newly negotiated conditions of service since January, 2016.
He said although GHOSPA’s negotiations started in 2015, the last time it had met on the matter with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) was February, 2016.
He said a technical committee set up by the FWSC in April this year to look into the structure was supposed to have finished its work in May this year; however, the report had still not been made available to the association.
He said efforts by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to ensure that the parties resolved the issues had also proved futile, with incessant adjournments demanded by the lawyers of the FWSC and an excuse that the report by the technical committee was not in the prescribed format.
He said it was untenable for the NLC to give the excuse that a technical committee it had set up had not produced a report in a prescribed format.
Statement
Meanwhile, the press statement by GHOSPA called on the FWSC, the MoH, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the NLC to resolve that with dispatch.
“GHOSPA wishes to state that the injustice meted out to us must stop. This dilly-dallying must cease. We are essential service workers and we demand that we are treated as such,” it said.
“The release is to serve notice to the government and all stakeholders of our intention to utilise legitimate means to press home our demands if, on or before July 20, 2016, we do not have any conclusive agreements on the single spine issues,” it stated.