The Ministry of Health has said it is yet to receive the proposal on the conditions of service for public health workers.
Following a call by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) for conditions of service for its members last year, the Health Ministry put together a technical group to work on the document.
[contextly_sidebar id=”DH2C5bzpDKZrRVrurcCagGVbz0I1SsOe”]The GMA claims that the Ministry wrote to it asking for more time to enable the technical group to finish its work.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Tony Goodman however told Citi News the Ministry is ready to conduct negotiations once it receives the document.
According to him, if the Ministry receives the document, it will go into negotiations with the leadership of the GMA together with the Ministry of Employment.
“We are all speaking the same language because we want this document to be finalized, so that all of us will know what we are all supposed to do. If it is done and we receive that document at the Ministry, we will have no reservations so if they are saying that it has delayed,” he explained.
Goodman stressed that the Minister, Alex Segbefia has not seen the document, adding that “the Minister was only briefed that the document is not ready…but if it is ready, we are ready to look at that document and start negotiations.”
The GMA has threatened to embark on a strike in July if government fails to sign and negotiate conditions of service for its members.
In a communiqué issued on Sunday, the GMA accused government of “not taking any step to solve the issue of lack of conditions of service” for its members “four months” after serving government its initial notice.
Prior to this communiqué, GMA in April served notice that it is ready to push government for appropriate conditions of service for its members.
The Association said the only benefit its members currently enjoy is free one week mortuary service when one dies; a situation they described as unfair.
They therefore threatened to resign by June 30, 2015 if the government fails to issue a collective bargaining agreement with them over their conditions of service.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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