Members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) who embarked on a strike to demand codified conditions of service will resume work today.
The doctors embarked on a three-week long strike to press home their demands for conditions of service document after 23 years.
Talks between the GMA and government were subsequently suspended at some point, but following pleas from various stakeholders, the doctors called off their three-week old strike on Friday.Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of the GMA, Frank Serebour said the GMA’s decision to call off the strike was hinged on calls from various quarters.
“I will like to indicate clearly that it is more to do with the public appeal and the secret meetings that we have been having with a lot of people whose names we decided not to mention in the statement and we have concluded that it is important that we offer our services starting from Monday and that is exactly what counsel has done.”
In a related development, government has withdrawn its veiled threat to halt the payment of the doctors’ salaries for the duration of the strike.
Government early on, threatened to freeze the salaries of doctors, reminding them and all other striking public sectors workers that under the provisions of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651), a worker on strike, “may forfeit his/her remuneration in respect of the period during which he/she is engaged in the illegal strike.”
However government’s latest resolution will ensure that doctors receive their August salaries at the end of this month as negotiations between it and the GMA continues today [Monday].
Source: citifmonline.com
