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Ministers and government officials have been asked to take a back seat and allow the duly mandated institution to negotiate with doctors on their conditions of service.

Labour consultant, Danso Acheampong who made the call says the stalemate between government and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) which led to a three-week strike was because the Fair Wages and Salary Commission failed to play its role.

“If you don’t allow the institution to work, things will just fall apart,” he told Joy FM Monday.

Fair wages was created by law to advise government on remuneration and also negotiate on behalf of government.

“It is not the ministers; all those people should stay at the background and give the proper mandate to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. As and when they exhaust their mandate, they go back for feedback and come back.”

Government and GMA resumed negotiations today but there are strong indications that it would be very difficult to get either party to soften their stance.

Government has stated a firm position it will restrict its offer to what is dictated by the current economic constraints. The doctors, however, say economic constraints or not, all they want is the signed conditions of service within weeks.

But Danso Acheampong is asking the two parties to exercise restraint and also avoid the media commentary because “it doesn’t augur well for negotiations”.

They must concentrate on negotiation, he advised, urging them to sign demands they agree on as negotiation progresses as well as noting portions they do not agree as areas to be revisited later.