Return to work and continue negotiating - President urges striking doctors

Kwame Asare Boadu Aug - 12 - 2015 , 21:52

President John Dramani Mahama has called on public sector doctors to call off their strike and return to the negotiation table and promised that the government will negotiate in good faith.

Describing the strike as illegal, he said,"Nobody must die because of an illegal strike."

"The strike is illegal, absolutely illegal," he said, and added that what was due the doctors would be given to them when negotiations were successful.

Public sector doctors have been on strike over their conditions of service. The general assembly of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) will meet tomorrow to take a decision on their action so far, including whether to carry through their resolve to resign en masse from tomorrow if their demands are not met.

Speaking on Uniq FM in Accra yesterday to mark International Youth Day, the President said, "They must know that when negotiations are successful and they are paid what is due them, those who are dead cannot be resurrected."

"It is an essential service and I believe that doctors should think about the welfare of Ghanaians," Mr Mahama said.

Conditions of service

President Mahama said doctors deserved conditions of service but "It is not like it is there and we took it away. "

He explained that since it was the first time that such conditions of service were being introduced, there was the need for some negotiations which could take a little bit of time.

He said the GMA itself took some time to draw up the conditions of service, but unfortunately when it handed them to government, it wanted the conditions to be approved at a specific date and nothing else.

Mr Mahama said the Labour Law stated that when negotiations were taking place, none of the parties should negotiate under duress and explained that that was what had led to the current situation.

The President said it was important for the negotiations to be holistic and cover other public sectors.

"We cannot single out one group of health workers and accede to their demands leaving the others," he said.
"Doctors are asking for conditions of service. Of course, all workers deserve conditions of service. And so it is not as simple as that, " he said.

President Mahama said,"It is not like we are not paying their salaries and allowances. We are paying but this is a new thing we are negotiating."

He stated that some of the items in their demands already existed "but they are asking for astronomical increases "and added that the "government can give you what it has".

He repeated that the government could not go over the budget.

To a suggestion that what the doctors were demanding was not for this year but 2016, the President asked, "If it is 2016, why are they on strike now? So people must die until the budget is presented?"

Salary freeze

President Mahama would not stick his neck out as to whether he supported the decision to freeze the salaries of the striking doctors or not but said, "We have to live by the laws of the country."

"We need to create discipline," he said, and added that it was not proper for him to interfere in the decision taken by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

He said it was a wrong perception that the only language the government understood was strike.

He attributed some of the problems to the system of migrating new employees onto the payment system.

On the case of a striking doctor at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital who was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital for an emergency surgery, the President said it was instructive that the strike could affect anyone.

UTAG strike

He also touched on the strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana ( UTAG) and said the lecturers were entitled to their book and research allowance once the proposed Research Fund was not yet in place. He consequently asked them to call off the strike.

Investment

He said the government was investing heavily in infrastructure in the areas of health, roads, education and others.

President Mahama called on the people to have confidence in the government as it worked to turn things around for the country.

Agenda for transformation

He said the Agenda for Transformation was on course. He stated that it was not wrong for the government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for respite because Ghana was a member of the IMF.

He said fiscal consolidation was taking place but emphasised that that was not because of the IMF programme but rather the application of home-grown policies.

Youth development

He said the government was undertaking a number of youth-centred programmes and projects to give the youth hope for the future and urged them to take advantage of them.

Security

On how he felt about his security in view of the recent arrest and imprisonment of a man who claimed he wanted to assassinate him, the President said his security network had taken up the matter.

He, however, stated that God was his protector.

NDC primaries

The President said he welcomed competition in the NDC primaries and explained that the NDC was a democratic party. "Anybody can pick up nominations to contest," he said.