Doctors demand written commitment from govt
The
Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it is waiting for a written
commitment from the government before striking doctors will resume work
fully.
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The commitment letter
should instruct the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department
(CAGD) to restore the payment of conversion difference and refund to
doctors the arrears with a payment schedule.
A statement
jointly issued by the Pr1esident, Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei, and the
General Secretary, Dr Frank Serebour, yesterday said the doctors were
neither demanding an immediate payment nor a one lump payment of their
conversion difference.
“The GMA would like to state
emphatically that we jealously guard the salaries and pensions of
doctors in the public sector,” it said.
It said any delay in
resolving the issue to make for the resumption of work by doctors should
be laid at the doorstep of the government, adding that the restoration
of the conversion difference would automatically correct the reduced
pensions.
The statement recalled a meeting held at the
Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations on April 19, at which it was
established that, indeed, doctors were paid conversion difference for
several months with the implementation of the Single Spine Salary
Structure but that was suspended by the government and amounts already
paid subsequently recovered.
“The meeting was adjourned with
the understanding that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of
Employment were to seek the mandate for the restoration and refund of
arrears of the conversion difference,” it said.
The GMA
expressed its willingness to call off the strike in totality and resume
work fully if the government committed itself to a signed document
instructing the CAGD to restore the payment of conversion difference and
refund the arrears with a payment schedule.
