President John Dramani Mahama has insisted that the decision by aggrieved doctors to strike is \u201cillegal\u201d and “does not make sense.”<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”N5RLI1ijLPlq6YLB9qDrRX3xQ3euGGie”]According to him, the strike must be called off because \u201cwe’re paying doctors their salaries and allowances as negotiated on single spine, but instead conditions of service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe labour law states that nobody must negotiate under duress. Even before negotiations begun they declared strike. Nobody must die as a result of an illegal strike. The doctors strike is illegal… The doctors must go back to work while negotiations continue in good faith,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The President made the comment today to commemorate the World Youth Day in an interview on Uniiq FM on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Members of the GMA have insisted that they will not return to work unless government provides them with conditions of service.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the salaries of striking doctors are likely to be frozen by government<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n A statement from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations\u00a0reminded the doctors and all other striking public sectors workers that under\u00a0the provisions of the Labour\u00a0Act 2003 (Act 651), a worker on strike, \u201cmay forfeit his\/her\u00a0remuneration in respect of the period during which he\/she is engaged in the illegal\u00a0strike.\u201d<\/p>\n Freeze on employment was to reduce wages \u2013 Mahama<\/strong><\/p>\n On the freeze on employment, president Mahama explained that the\u00a0move was\u00a0to reduce pressure on government’s wage bill.<\/p>\n He said the wage bill continue to take toll on government revenue adding that, \u201cwe want to bring the wages and compensation bill down. In 2013 wages took 73% total tax revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2010, the government placed a ban on the recruitment of employees in the public sector to reduce the increasing wage bill.<\/p>\n Some Ghanaian workers had complained that the embargo over the years has increased the rate of unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n But Mahama said government has been able to reduce the wage bill has been reduced from 73% to 49% of tax revenues adding that such monies are being channeled into development development.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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