Government’s demand for end to strike before negotiations is “unfair labour practice” – GMA Gen. Secretary
General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Titus Beyuo has said government is not being fair to labour unions by its request for the ongoing strike to be called off before negotiations could commence.
According to him, the demand by the government is not a “fair labour practice”.
Speaking in an interview on Top Story, Wednesday, he said government has been reluctant in addressing the concerns of labour prior to the announcement of the industrial action.
“Without a strike or threat of same, nobody is talking to you. When you go on strike they do not talk to you…you have made a request before, no meetings, no responses, nothing to discuss and when you go on strike you say because you are on strike we cannot negotiate.
“If you call people to a meeting and you tell them at that meeting that if they cannot call off the strike then you cannot negotiate, that is problematic,” he told Evans Mensah.
He noted that health workers who have served notice to strike over the Cost of Living Allowance are ready to negotiate with the government on a “reasonable conclusion”.
Doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other health workers across the country have served notice they will withdraw their services if the government fails to pay their Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
In a joint statement sighted by JoyNews, the joint health sector unions and professional associations said they will boycott both in-patient and out-patient services by August 1, 2022 if the government fails to address their concerns.
The associations say their resolve comes after a meeting between labour unions and the government on Tuesday, July 12, ended inconclusively.
Already, five labour unions have embarked on strike to demand cost of living allowance.
A meeting on Tuesday between the government and organised labour unions over the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) was adjourned indefinitely.
According to the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey, the adjournment was due to the refusal of some labour unions to call off their strike before negotiations commence.
“We have had to adjourn the meeting because both parties; labour and government think that we cannot do this while a party is on strike, so the agreement is that we are going off to talk to each other. They call off the strike and we come again to meet,” he told JoyNews.
Regarding this development, representatives of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) walked out of the negotiation with the government over their demand for COLA.
The two associations have accused government of betrayal of trust for asking them to call off their strike before negotiations.
Source: Ghana News
