Update: GMA extends strike, but defer decision on mass strike

Doctors in public service yesterday voted massively to maintain the status quo in their industrial action which they began on July 30, 2015.
At a General Assembly meeting convened at the GMA House in Accra, the doctors, who came from all over the country, voted for their executives to continue their industrial action and see only to in-patients.

They charged the executives to ensure that they have a signed conditions of service document in two weeks or they would begin processes towards withdrawing their services.

Executives of the GMA tabled two motions before the meeting.

Members were asked whether the strike was to be called off or whether the road map was to be adhered to.

Out of about 200 doctors, more than a 100 voted for the strike to continue and for executives to ensure a signed document for doctors in two weeks.

The doctors agreed for a meeting to be reconvened in two weeks to review the work of their executives in relation to getting a signed conditions of service document, after which they would begin processes towards their mass resignation, if no headway had been made.

Briefing
When the meeting started, journalists were made to stand a distance from the building where it was being held.

Intermittently, loud clapping and cheers could be heard from the doctors, who jam-packed the two conference rooms of the GMA House, with some having to stand in the doorway.

The President of the GMA, Dr Adusei-Poku, was heard reading out some communication from the government in relation to its counter-proposals made to the GMA’s proposals.

Loud protests were heard from members after their president had read out the counter-proposals, showing disagreement from members.

When the motions were put to the vote, they elicited loud clappings at the outcome, which was for the status quo to be extended.

At the end of the meeting, which started at about midday and ended at about 4p.m, the Deputy General Secretary of the GMA, Dr Justice Yankson, briefed journalists.

He said the doctors had decided to see to in-patients, adding that that was in line with their press release of July 29, 2015.

Dr Yankson explained that extending their strike for two more weeks was in consideration of in-patients, who had all been admitted to public health facilities by doctors themselves.

He said doctors, therefore, had a duty to ensure that those they had taken into their charge at health facilities were taken care of.

Unfair dealings

Before the meeting started, GMA council members, consultants, doctors and housemen and women in their doctor’s attire, were seen entering the GMA House.

The doctors gathered in groups, discussing issues pertaining to their conditions of service.

Some doctors who were willing to talk to journalists but did not want to be named, expressed dissatisfaction with the government for negotiating with them in bad faith.

They said leaking their proposals and enjoining doctors to negotiate their conditions of service within the Public Service Joint Standing Negotiating Committee (PSJSNC) when other workers in the public service had their conditions of service negotiated separately as early as 2012 when the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) had just begun, was in bad faith and showed that the government was exhibiting double standards in relation to its dealings with workers.

Writer's email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh