556 nurses of Ridge Hospital on strike
Nurses at the Ridge Hospital in Accra yesterday laid down their tools to protest the non-payment of their March salaries by the government.
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The more than 556 nurses of the hospital threatened to continue the industrial action until all salary arrears due them are paid.
When the Daily Graphic visited the hospital late afternoon yesterday, it observed that the Out-Patients Department (OPD) was deserted.
According to reports, there had been many patients at the OPD earlier in the day but most of them left when they realised that there were no nurses to attend to them.
The hospital attended to only emergency cases and in-patients.
Cause of problem
Confirming the strike to the Daily Graphic, the Head of Administration of the hospital, Mr Emmanuel Taadi, said the national leadership of nurses had scheduled a meeting with the nurses today to resolve the issue.
He explained that the inability of the government to pay the nurses was due to a technical challenge the new electronic salary payment voucher adopted by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) experienced in March.
The new payment voucher is an electronic version of the manual salary payment voucher that must be validated by managers of employees using the Internet before salaries are paid
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According to Mr Taadi, in March this year, hospital officials had difficulty accessing the system to electronically validate the pay vouchers of its staff.
“We lodged a complaint with the CAGD which rectified the problem of access. Finally, when the hospital was able to access the system, it found only payment vouchers of two categories of workers — doctors and pharmacists and general staff.
“Those of nurses and midwives were absent for validation. The hospital authorities lodged a complaint with the CAGD, which promised to rectify the situation,” he said.
He said unfortunately, the department did not rectify the problem, a situation which created the problem of non-payment of the March salaries of nurses.
Salary arrears to be paid in April
Mr Taadi said the hospital authorities later consulted the CAGD to find out if it would be possible for the nurses to be paid immediately.
“The department said there was nothing it could do immediately because any interruption in the system at that time would delay the salaries of all government workers for April 2015,” he added.
He said it, however, promised to pay the arrears of the nurses’ salaries, together with their April salaries.
The hospital, due to its inability to pay all the nurses, made arrangements for salary advance from the nurses’ respective bankers but the nurses refused the offer, with the excuse that they would be charged for the service.
The nurses, with the excuse of not having money for transportation to and from work, eventually laid down their tools yesterday.
Writer’s email: doreen.andoh @graphic.com.gh