Accra, Dec. 12, GNA – The Health Service Workers Unions (HSWU) has called on the authorities to immediately resolve all their concerns to avoid any industrial action.
The unresolved concerns include non-implementation of their Collective Agreement, Market Premium, denial of incremental notches, non-adherence to National laboratory Policy, discrimination in Health Insurance, wrongful placement of Medical Physicists and distortions in the grading of the Allied Health Professionals.
In a Resolution endorsed by all the 16 Regional Industrial Relations Officers and 30 Health Professional Associations under the Union, the health workers called on the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to immediately resolve all their grievances.
“We will advise ourselves according to the language they best understand because the deadline given by the National Leadership and the Presidents of the Various Professional Associations at our last press conference held at Cleaver House in Accra has not been given the attention it deserves,” it added.
The HSWU comprises all health workers, except doctors, nurses and midwives, anesthetics and pharmacists.
The Resolution, copied to the Ghana News Agency, stated that the Union felt marginalised despite the tremendous services they rendered to achieve holistic and comprehensive healthcare delivery.
“Our grievances are mostly not given the attention it deserves, meanwhile, healthcare can never be complete without our services.”
“A Collective Agreement was signed between Health Agencies and Facilities under the Ministry of Health and the Health Services Workers’ Union of TUC Ghana in December, 2015 in accordance with the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651); The Collective Agreement, which takes precedence over any other existing agreement, was to take effect from January 01, 2016.”
“Health facilities are currently either not implementing or undertaking selective implementation. This is mainly attributed to the fact that its implementation is dependent on Internally Generated Funds (IGF) from individual health facilities whose IGF are woefully inadequate or nonexistent. It is worth noting that some category of health professionals have their condition of service consolidated in their salary and paid from Controller and Accountant General”.
“With the introduction of the Single Spine Salary Structure, Market Premium was introduced as a percentage of our base pay to take care of the Cost of Living Allowance and Additional Duty Hour Allowance that formed part of our remuneration as health workers. The Market Premium by convention is to change as and when salaries are reviewed. The Market Premium has been static since 2012 and not corresponding with our current salaries.”
“The freeze of the Market Premium by our employer is very arbitrary and discriminatory compared to other public servants who earn market premium.”
The Resolution stated that due to the absence of a regulatory council, absence of laws regulating the Allied Health profession, and members not writing licensure examination, some of the members were not properly placed on the Single Spine Salary Structure in 2012.
It said those three conditions were fulfilled by the promulgation of Act 857 in 2013, yet the distortion and low grading had still not been corrected.
That unfortunate action was at variance with the spirit and letter of Single Spine Pay Policy and should be reviewed to commensurate with their current salaries.
On the issue of Incremental Notches, the Resolution said without any justification, some members had been denied yearly incremental since they were migrated in 2012
It, therefore, called on the appropriate authorities to address their concerns and ensure that there was fairness in the health system.
GNA
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS