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Introduction
In unison with the Ghana Certified Registered Anesthetists Association (GACRA) and the Ghana Physician Assistants Association (GPAA), the Ghana Registered Nurse and Midwives Association (GRNMA) declared a total and nationwide strike on Monday, September 21. of 2020. Its members in the Therefore, the public sector had abandoned public hospitals since then. The strike action stems from the government’s inability to meet the required conditions of service (COS). It can be said with certainty that labor actions or strikes and lockouts have become the language of public sector employers and public servants. Health workers are providers of essential services according to section 175 of the Labor Law of 2003 (Law 651), so, naturally, the employer should not play with their COS, much less if they go on a total strike. In this article, I will argue neutrally and place the hammer where I find the nail.
Intimidating nurses instead of negotiating with them is bad
So as stated as previously, Public sector Nurses of all kinds, Midwives, Medical Assistants and Anesthetists have started a total strike nationwide since last Monday. They have stopped saving lives amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Are they heartless? I think not. They are human too. They are human like article 71 civil servants who are paid high and rewarding salaries. They save lives. They provide essential services. They deserve a good COS. Issues related to your COS should not be overlooked. President Emeritus Kufuor was bold and frank when he said that the government intends to pay public servants and the latter pretend to work. But in the case of essential services personnel like nurses, midwives, anesthetists, and medical assistants, I don’t think they intend to work. They save lives.
We have seen in the media that the Police and other authorities are intimidating the striking Nurses and their allies. Such intimidation must be condemned without hesitation. We must not and cannot force striking nurses, midwives, medical assistants and anesthetists to return to work, using intimidation. They save lives in such an intimidating way and forcing them to return to hospitals can have serious implications for quality patient care.
This is not the first time and it will not be the last time that we have witnessed these types of strikes in the public health sector. We witnessed many of these strikes before and many of them in 2016, but nobody intimidated anyone, so the Ministry of Health, the GHS and the central government should involve the striking health workers instead of using the intimidation. Bullying will not work.
Do nurses deserve what they ask for?
It is widely reported in the media (traditional and social) that striking nurses and other healthcare workers are making certain demands such as:
- Subsidies for books and research for their tutors in the faculties of health and nursing.
- Fuel allowance
- Rural subsidy
- Duty Guard Facilitation Assignment
- Requalification of Community Health Nurses, Registered Nurses, and Senior Nurse Officers
- Place rotating nurses and midwives in the appropriate grades (12L and 12H) in the single column salary structure (SSSS)
- Resolution of problems related to the difference in conversion due to the migration of nurses and other striking health professionals to the SSSS
- 8% Non-basic wage subsidy
- Uniform allowance
- Rental subsidy
- Professional development grant
- Restoration of vehicle import tax exemption for nurses and others
As much as you agree that nurses, midwives, anesthetists, and medical assistants deserve what they ask for, you had better negotiate an implementation roadmap so that we don’t overload the gun with too much powder and blow the barrel of the gun in the process. . That can be suicidal.
In some ways, the government is to blame for these huge demands on nurses and their allies. Very often, when health workers file claims, the government approves some and instructs that the claims be included in category 2 and category 3 allocations payable from internally generated funds (IGF). The IGF is linked to paying NHIS claims to hospitals and other competing overhead costs make it difficult for hospital administrations to pay for such decentralized and localized allocations. That is why nurses want their claims to be consolidated into their salaries payable by the Comptroller and General Accounting Department. Apparently they don’t want to be “fooled.”
Although I agree with the striking nurses and others, they should reconsider their demands because poor patients are suffering and any of them or their family members can become patients even while the strike is in effect.
Be that as it may, strikes like this should teach the government a lesson that placing Article 71 workers, members of parliament and ministers on huge salaries to the detriment of other public servants is wrong. But can the government afford to meet the demands of the nurses or not? It seems to me that it will be difficult, if not impossible, but nurses should be given reasonable and realistic assurances rather than intimidation.
Interdict of the National Labor Commission
The National Labor Commission (NLC) should know that the Labor Law of 2003 (Law 651) establishes provisions for legal and illegal strikes, as well as essential services. Where was the NLC when striking healthcare professionals were at the negotiating table until it came to a standstill between them and their employers that led to an all-out nationwide strike? Is the NLC in bed with the government instead of speaking as an ombudsman?
Placing a court order on the strike alone will not solve the problem. What will solve the problem is that the leaders of GRNMA, GACRA and GPAA return to the negotiating table with some hope on the part of the employers.
The NLC must not ignore that healthcare workers provide essential services, so they must not have been treated unfairly to justify a strike. For me, the NLC has failed to proactively uphold the principles of Labor Law, so now they are using a knee-jerk approach in the form of a court order.
Be that as it may, nurses and their allies (GACRA and GPAA) must also be measured and realistic in their demands should they return to the negotiating table. This is because the strike has morbidity and mortality implications for precious and innocent lives, knowing that no healthcare worker has the power to resurrect those who may die from the strike.
Fragmented health professional associations
In some ways, the public sector health workers themselves are to blame for their poor and uncoordinated conditions of service. They divide, forming numerous and fragmented professional associations that employ cynicism in their demands. The government is also pleased that public sector health workers are not united under the umbrella of a single union.
Different associations of health professionals make demands regarding what similar associations enjoy. They undermine each other for the government, each claiming to be the most important in the industry. It is shameful. In Nigeria and elsewhere, all public sector workers are united, so if there is a strike, they go as a bloc.
The proverbial cotton thread says that only one stone is carried in the unit. Public sector health workers should learn a lesson from the proverbial cotton thread and unite with a single bargaining voice. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), which appears to be the most influential association in the healthcare sector, should set the pace to place all healthcare workers in one union.
conclusion
Even though the news indicates that the nurses have called off the strike, the government should call them back to the negotiating table and, should they back down, consensus should prevail over intimidation. Nurses deserve better than that. Again, the nurses and their striking colleagues must also be considered in their demands. I sincerely thank you for your timely suspension of the strike.
~ Thank you very much ~
Philip Afeti Korto
E-mail: [email protected]
