The members of the Government and Hospitals Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA), have served notice they will go on an indefinite strike to press home demands for their market premiums.
The association said this course of action has been necessitated due to the continuous breakdown negotiations with government over its grade structure and placement in public health facilities.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LF8HdHXKCw1mGrGWcdDi60toSSxKuxHD”]The last time GHOSPA went on strike, in August 2015, it was over the same unresolved issues with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) over conversion differences after migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure.
GHOSPA’s General Secretary, Emmanuel Owusu Owiafe, lamented to Citi News that six years of negotiations has yet to bear any fruit hence GHOSPA’s decision to strike.
He also stated that other pharmacists working for government, but outside the Health Service, were receiving better market premiums.
“Within the health service, we are having discrepancies in our interim market payment even comparable to our colleague pharmacists in some public sector institutions. Pharmacists working in university hospitals are on a premium of 1.14 meanwhile the Fair Wages and salaries Commissions are putting pharmacists working in the Ghana health services at 0.58 and that is a huge discrepancy,” Mr. Owiafe said.
He further warned that, “We are very resolute and if things are not concluded for us where there is a clear instruction to the Ministry of Health and the Controller and Accountant General, we will not rescind on this strike.”
–
By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana