Health workers threaten strike over emoluments

The Health Services Workers' Union (HSWU) of the TUC in the Volta, Oti and Eastern regions have called on the government to resolve grievances concerning their emoluments or else they will lay down their tools.

The union said despite rendering tremendous services in the health sector in order to achieve holistic healthcare delivery, workers were being marginalised as outstanding issues such as the partial or non-implementation of collective agreement; wrongful placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure and non-payment of market premium had remained unresolved.

Addressing the media in Ho, the Regional Industrial Relations Officer, Volta and Oti regions, Ms Harriet Sobour Amposah, said some health institutions fell short in fully implementing a Collective Agreement between the Ministry of Health, its agencies and the HSWU signed in 2015 which was to take effect from January, 2016.

“This is because it has not been consolidated but it is rather paid from internally generated funds (IGF) which is woefully inadequate and not all health facilities generate IGF. With the introduction of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), market premium was introduced at eight per cent of our base pay to take care of the Cost of Living Allowance and Additional Duty Hours Allowance (ADHA) that formed part of our remuneration as health workers,” Ms Amponsah said.

She lamented that the grievances of HSWU were mostly not given the attention they deserved, “meanwhile, health care can never be complete without our services."

Biases

Stating that there were biases in salaries under the SSSS, Ms Amponsah accused the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission of creating apathy and dissatisfaction among the administrative and support staff in the health service.

She explained that while clinical staff were paid a market premium ranging from 58 per cent to 120 per cent, non-clinical staff received premiums ranging from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.

She added that the wrongful placement of Allied Health Professionals pointed to the inability of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to make provision for that category of staff on the SSSS.

She called on the FWSC to establish their grade on the salary structure to enhance proper placement of critical staff since they were not recognised within the health sector, a situation which had “forced the employer to place them as either Radiographers or Biomedical Scientists irrespective of the differences in training and qualifications.”

National Laboratory Policy

Ms Amposah also complained about the non-implementation of the National Laboratory Policy.

“The National Laboratory Policy has not received full attention by the Ministry of Health in spite of the fact that the policy was approved by the former Minister of
Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, way back in 2013. It has still not been launched for it to be implemented to enhance service delivery and we are calling for the launching and implementation now,” Ms Amponsah said.

She called for an urgent resolution to the demands so that they would not have to carry on with the threat to lay down their tools.

“Our long awaited concerns enumerated above should be resolved by 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 or else, we shall advise ourselves according to the language they best understand because of the deadline given by the national leadership and the presidents of the various professional associations,” she said.

Ms Harriet Sobour-Amponsah (middle), Volta and Oti regions’ Industrial Relations Officer of the Health Service Workers Union, addressing the press conference

Eastern Region

At another press conference called by members of the HSWU in the Eastern Region, they also threatened to lay down their tools as a result of the non-implementation or selective implementation of agreements signed with the MoH in December 2015 which was to take effect from January 1, 2016.

They attributed the non-implementation to what they termed the woefully inadequate or non-existence of Internally Generated Funds (IGF) of health facilities on which the implementation was dependent.

The HSWU added that allowances pertaining to market premiums, as well as ADHA, which were introduced with the SSSS as part of the remuneration of health workers had not received any upward adjustment since 2012 to correspond with their salaries.

They described the freeze on the remuneration as “very arbitrary and discriminatory compared to other public servants who earned market premium.”

Wrongful placement

The HSWU also called on the sector ministry to resolve the wrongful placement of Medical Physicists and discrimination against some staff classified as non-clinicians despite working together on the same scale.

They accused the FWSC of creating apathy and dissatisfaction among the administrative and support staff in the health service, as clinical staff were paid a market premium ranging between 58 per cent to 120 per cent, whereas non-clinical staff received premiums ranging from 15 to 30 per cent.

The other listed grievances included; “payment arrears of staff promoted from Level Three to Level Four since January 1, 2018; non-implementation of National Health Laboratory Policy, non-automatic incremental notches and salary distortion under the SSSS.

Resolve

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Regional Industrial Officer of the Eastern Regional chapter of the HSWU of the TUC, Mr Mohammed Abeo, said all their members had been directed to drape their offices in red bands as preparation towards their intended strike pending the approval from the national executive.

Mr Abeo also called on other organised bodies to implore the government and the Ministry of Health to address their grievances instead of waiting to plead with them to return to work should they embark on the strike.

“We gave the government a two-week ultimatum to respond to our demands but they failed to call us and write to us; this implies that they have taken us for granted.
This is the time for other stakeholders and organised bodies, including the Christian Council, Peace Council and the Muslim Council to call on the government and the
Ministry of Health to meet the demands of the health workers and not wait until we go on strike before they begin to issue communiqués pleading with us to return to work.

We do not want anyone to come and tell us we were politically motivated,” he said.

However, doctors, nurses, anesthetics and pharmacists are not part of the intended strike as they are not members of the Health Service Workers’ Union.