Ghana’s nurses association raises concern about unfavourable labour issues
The Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) on Monday called on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to remain resolute in ensuring fairness in its implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure.
The Association raised concerns about recent adjustments in salary by the National Labour Commission (NLC) in favour of pharmacists in the placement of graduates at the entry point of pharmacists who were earlier placed at par with graduate nurses and midwives on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The Association argued that the action of the NLC was not only unconstitutional but also unfair to nurses and midwives whose role in the health care delivery system was as crucial as that of any of their counterparts in the health service delivery chain.
Mr Kwaku Asante-Krobea, National President of GRNA, who addressed a press conference on labor issues on Nursing and Midwifery, said initial agreements that characterised the onset of placements under the SSSS had been distorted, owing to the ruling of the NLC.
In resolving an impasse between pharmacists and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) on the placement of the graduate entrants of pharmacists who were placed at par with the graduate entrants of nurses and midwives on the SSSS, the NLC had ruled that the level of graduate entrants of pharmacists unto the SSSS be adjusted a step further than that of the nurses and midwives.
Mr Asante-Krobea argued that the NLC had no mandate to order an adjustment of the levels of SSSS against the FWSC that had been established by an Act of Parliament, (Act 737) 2007, to administer and implement the new Public Service Policy of the Government.
He indicated that the Association was yet to receive any feedback for an appeal to the Grievance Review Committee (GRC) of the FWSC with regards to an objection raised against the low placement of the Principal Nursing Officer against the adjusted level of a Medical Officer who had earlier been placed on the same level on the SSSS.
He said: “These and other issues such as the unlawful stoppage of the Conversion Difference Component of the SSSS by the FWSC and the Ministry of Finance are creating some agitations among members who feel cheated”.
He said it was surprising that more pressing issues that were to motivate the Health Sector Workers generally and improve their conditions of service had been ignored.
Mr Asante-Krobea said a joint protest issued by the GRNA, the Ghana Medical Association and the Health Services Workers’ Union seeking Government’s intervention had not seen any action and explained that the multi-faceted roles of nurses and midwives in the remotest hard-to-reach areas of the country should be recognised.
He said the resolve of its members not to embark on any strike action or lockout needlessly since the implementation of the SSSS stemmed from the fact that they had decided to put the patient first and abhor the repercussions of the withdrawal of the services of nurses and midwives without a just cause.
“Again, they have respected the tenets of the Labour Law once it is applied fairly, and revere the collective Oaths of other International Professional Associations which members are affiliated to, while upholding the principle of exhausting all channels of negotiations before considering a strike action,” he said.
The Association gave the assurance that it would lend the necessary support to the NLC to resist all attempts by any person, group of persons or any established institution of the state to distort the comprehensive structure of the pay policy technically created out of a rigorous exercise that involved well meaning stakeholders.
It said failure of the Commission to do so would heighten the tensions from aggrieved nurses and midwives who had been “victims of discrimination, marginalisation and injustice”.
It called for the strengthening of the mandate of the FWSC to enable it to deal with issues relating to the salary administration of this country pragmatically and to meet its mandate.
The leadership also appealed to all health stakeholders, the employer and all significant others to ensure that the health sector was not disturbed by standing for fairness, failure of which “we nurses and midwives will advice ourselves”.
Source: GNA