Junior nurses and midwives suspend strike

Striking junior nurses and midwives have suspended their week-long strike in protest against unpaid salary arrears and poor working conditions.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Mr Kwaku Asante-Krobea, President of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), said the leadership was calling off the strike because of the positive response and appeal made to the over 7,000 striking nurses and midwives to return to work.

He said the decision had become necessary following the release of funds to pay the deferred salary arrears of the Psychiatric Nurses and salary arrears on the promotion of some officers.

He said the group was also attesting to the hope of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, to pay the striking psychiatric nurses and the Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives by the end of October 2015.

Mr Asante-Krobea, however, cautioned that the GRNA would fully support full-scale resumption of the action if disparities in the payment of the deferred and withheld salaries of affected members were not addressed.

He appealed to government to address all outstanding issues of salary without delay, to boost the confidence of practitioners and also improve the current unacceptable nurse and patient ratio situation.

“We desire that we providers of essential services must all times receive due respect and recognition by our paymasters, and our sacrifices must come with a reward without assigning us the posture of dignity better than other public sector workers, because we believe that it is the services we provide that are essential and not necessarily we ourselves,” he said.

Mr Asante-Krobea condemned the disregard and ill treatment shown the Junior Nurses and Midwives, saying “they have been given a raw deal as the paymaster has been insensitive to their plight for withholding their salaries for periods ranging from six to eleven months.”

Source: GNA