The migration of medical doctors and other health workers onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) has created distortions and problems, resulting in reduction in salaries of the professionals, which they have expressed serious concerns about.
The migration, which was implemented in December last year, has resulted in the professionals receiving lower salaries than what they were previously earning, and this might result in another battle between the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) early this year.
Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, President of the GMA, who said these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency GNA) in Accra on Wednesday, said apart from the reduction in salaries, the issue concerning grades of district directors of Health Services and medical superintendents has still not be resolved.
He explained that though the National Labour Commission (NLC) had ruled after the compulsory arbitration meeting that the matter be resolved by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service Council since the NLC had no jurisdiction over the matter, letters written to the Council did not receive any response.
The doctors, in October last year, staged a 14-day nation-wide strike over distortions in their migration onto the SSSS, 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 the GMA and the FWSC to agree to solve the problem compelled the FWSC 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 Controller and Accountant-General should pay the doctors their SSSS whilst district and medical superintendents should be settled by the Ghana Health Service Council.
Dr Opku Adusei expressed concern about early payment of January salaries by Government, and said that would not help alleviate the sufferings of workers, but it would rather compound their financial problems.
He suggested that Government rather increase salaries and ensure that the concerns of the medical doctors were resolved.
Source: GNA
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