<<Print>>Labour consultant, Austin Gamey has called on government to sack the striking doctors who according to him are ‘deliberately slaughtering patients’ by their strike action.
The punishment for doing so, he said in an interview would be that they (striking doctors) would be condemned to hell fire because they have the blood of innocent people on their hands.
“We don’t need them to take care of the patients, they should get out…we are tired…why should doctors contribute deliberately to the slaughtering of people so that an employer would feel bad…the employer must take immediate steps, if we don’t have doctors which we don’t have then we would know we don’t have doctors, everybody would know how to take care of himself…,” he said.
Members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) at the end of July declared a strike action which they voted at a crucial General Assembly meeting to extend despite calls from various quarters for them to call it off.
Prior to the extension, President Mahama on Uniiq FM described the action as one which ‘does not make sense’ and it’s ‘illegal’.
Responding to this, Managing Editor of Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr questioned why the government is still negotiating with the striking doctors despite claims that ‘it is illegal’.
And the one time Deputy Employment and Social Welfare Minister under the Rawlings administration speaking on 'Radio Gold' seem to think in like manner as apart from insisting the strike action is illegal urged the striking doctors to return to the wards before God punishes them for contributing to the ‘slaughtering’ of innocent people.
“Doctors are instruments used by God also…it is absolutely out of place for any doctor to deliberately contribute, the blood of the people would be required on their hands…I tell you one day it would be shown in a video, unfortunately when you die you can’t come back and tell people what is happening, but many people would end up having problems with God, they would show it to them that you contributed to the death of people, so go to hell…,” he said.
Austin Gamey continued that the doctors by their prolonged strike action are losing the respect accorded them and their profession by Ghanaians.
“I respect doctors, almost all the GMA executives are my friends…I highly respect them…some have come through my training…but they have abused the trust of the people…,” he said
According to him, the GMA ‘by now [are] feeling bad because they have abused the trust reposed into them, on top of it, they did not know that what they began could metamorphose or travel this length ….”
His belief, he said, is borne out of the conviction that the doctors assumed the government was going to give in to their demands once they embarked on the strike action.
“The doctors are feeling bad…you don’t start strikes by heart…I don’t blame them much because they don’t have the clarity of the workings of trade unionism, industrial relations…they have misfired and it has backfired on them, and they don’t know how to go back…,” he opined.
Quoting section 127:3 of the Labour Act to buttress his point, Austin Gamey argued that he was convinced government erred in negotiating with the striking doctors adding that anyone could call for the cancellation of agreements established between them and the government once they were on strike.
“Government shouldn’t have started negotiations with the doctors at all because you don’t negotiate under coercion or duress…someone can take them to court and demand that agreements signed with them while on strike should be cancelled because it is against the law.
“No employer worth his salt should allow any employee to intimidate them…I don’t know what is wrong with Ghanaians, they don’t obey the law…,” he said.
The Labour consultant who claimed the striking doctors are disgracing the nation further called on government to sack them since they are not humble.
“The doctors are not humble and hence are abusing the labour law…what they are doing is a big disgrace to the nation, a big disgrace to the profession and notable people among them should bow their heads in shame that they cannot call their young men to order…,” he said.
Austin Gamey thus charged government to formally report the striking GMA to the Labour Commission for resolution.