FWSC advises doctors to check Controller and Accountant General’s Department for salary shortfall
The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has advised the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to trace the shortfall of the salaries of their members and other health workers with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD).
The advice follows complaint made by the GMA that the migration of health professionals onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) had created distortions and other problems resulting in reduction in their salaries.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Thursday, Mrs Eva Addo, Director for Salary Regrading and Job Evaluation of FWSC said the Commission should not be blamed for the shortfall and urged the pay roll outfit of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to liaise with the CAGD to address the anomaly.
She explained that the outstanding issue of grades of District Directors of Health Services and Medical Superintendents was a management matter which needed to be efficiently addressed by the GHS to enable the FWSC implement consequently.
Mrs Addo said FWSC deemed it appropriate to migrate the rest of the health workers onto the SSSS pending the agreement on the grades of the personnel affected.
Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, President of GMA, on Wednesday announced in an interview with the GNA in Accra that the migration of health personnel onto the SSSS had created irregularities, which had attracted serious concerns.
According to him, the migration, which was implemented in December last year, had resulted in professionals receiving lower salaries than what they were previously earning, hinting that the development might result in another battle between the GMA and the FWSC this year.
Dr Opoku-Adusei explained that the National Labour Commission (NLC) had ruled after the compulsory arbitration meeting that the matter should be resolved by the Ministry of Health and the GHS Council.
He said since the NLC had no jurisdiction over the matter, letters written to the Council did not receive any response.
The doctors, in October 20111, staged a 14-day nation-wide strike over distortions in their migration onto the SSSS over the inability of the FWSC to provide unequivocal evidence of migration of doctors onto the SSSS and the ambiguous stance of the SSS Secretariat on the position of District Directors of Health Service and Medical Superintendents.
The inability of GMA and FWSC to resolve the problem compelled the Commission to refer the issue to NLC to apply the compulsory arbitration as provided for under Section 162 of the Labour Act.
The NLC ruled that the CAGD should pay the doctors their SSSS whilst that of District and Medical Superintendents should be settled by the GHS Council.
Source: GNA