Psychiatric nurses strike again over unpaid salaries
Aggrieved nurses at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital on Thursday began an indefinite strike to put pressure on government to pay their salaries which has been outstanding for one year.
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The nurses went on strike in August 2015 but called it off after government assured that the money would be paid by end of September.
Spokesperson for the group, Emmanuel Febri told journalists that the days of negotiations were over and that all that they want now was their monies.
They will only return to work when their monies hit their accounts, they said.
“They [government] came here and said do your part and I will also do my part…September ending you are going to be paid. That same day we called off the strike and started working…but government didn’t honour their promises.”
“We don’t have any risks allowance should a patient hurt you. It’s the same salary that you are going to use to take care of yourself. It’s so sad.Until the money is paid we are not coming back,” he said.
Return or no pay
Meanwhile, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu has urged the striking nurses to call off their strike or risk losing their salaries for the month of October.
According to him, although he assured the nurses that their salaries arrears would be settled by the end of September, “It wasn’t my fault or that fault that their names could not get onto the payroll”.
Mr Iddrisu expressed surprise at the action of the nurses but said “Government will not tolerate this continuous disrespect to the labour law and continuous disrespect to process”.
“I’m surprised and should they proceed on this strike action, we will pay them what they deserve but certainly not for the month of October,” he said.
According to him, he met with the nurses two days ago to give them a progress report on their unpaid salaries.
Mr Iddrisu explained that what had caused the delay in the payment of their salaries had to do with inputting of their data, adding that, it would not be the reason for government to delay salary payment of all public sector workers.