PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED AT THE END OF THE 4TH NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (NEC)

August 11, 2015
PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED AT THE END OF THE
4TH NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (NEC)
MEETING OF THE GHANA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
(GMA) FOR THE YEAR 2015, HELD AT THE CAPITAL
VIEW HOTEL, KOFORIDUA IN THE EASTERN
REGION, FROM 10TH – 12TH AUGUST, 2015
GMA wishes to bring the following to the notice
of the public and all concerned:
Historical Perspective
1. Members of the GMA in the public sector have
not had any DOCUMENTED Conditions of Service
(COS) since the inception of the Ghana Health
Service (GHS) in 1996.
2. The various benefits currently enjoyed by our
members ie 2 weeks of free mortuary services,
are as a result of administrative directives,
Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and other
discretionary offers from our employer. These are
varied at will, without recourse to the employees.
3. The process of developing COS document for
doctors began over 10 years ago, and has never
been concluded, because the successive
Governments prefer to operate a system where we
cannot point, or hold them to any single
document as constituting the COS for our
members.
4. After several years of unsuccessful
negotiations, the General Assembly of the GMA
issued an ultimatum in November 2014
(“November Ultimatum”), with several subsequent
reminders to the effect that if COS document is
not signed before 30th of June, 2015, the GMA
will put into motion series of actions that may
disturb the industrial peace in the health sector.
5. Following the November ultimatum, in April
2015, a team was put together by government to
draft a framework for negotiation for COS for the
entire health sector. The team finished their work
at the end of May 2015.
6. The Framework was supposed to guide all
unions within the health sector on their
proposals for negotiations.
The Negotiation Process
1. GMA submitted its proposal at a joint
negotiation committee (comprising 16 members
from the government team and 10 members from
the GMA).
2. The ground rules for the Committee were
signed between the parties on the 28th of June,
2015. In response to this progress, the GMA
called for an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting on
the 29th of June 2015, to review its deadline. The
General Assembly agreed to shift its ultimatum to
the 29th of July 2015, in other to give room for
negotiations to continue. As part of the ground
rules, both parties were prohibited from making
public, any document from the negotiation table.
It was against this background of utmost good
faith that the GMA submitted its proposals.
Government’s Bad Faith
1. Throughout the process of negotiations it
became apparent that the Government team was
not properly mandated and they could not take
any decisions. Indeed, the Chairmanship position
of the government team has never been stable
and kept on changing from time to time. It must
be said that it was only on the day that the
roadmap as stipulated by the GMA was supposed
to come into force that the government team
showed some signs of seriousness with the
negotiations. The GMA therefore had no option
than to roll out the roadmap on the 29th of July
2015, when no COS document had been
negotiated and signed as was demanded by the
General Assembly of the GMA.
2. As soon as the roadmap was put into motion,
the government resulted to propaganda and lies
with the aim of turning/swaying public opinion
against the doctors despite the fact that it was the
government that had not shown good faith at the
negotiation table.
3. As part of government propaganda machinery,
some proposals that the GMA had put before it at
the negotiation table was leaked to the press, a
clear violation of the ground rules that were
signed between the parties.
4. Subsequently, several altered and fallacious
documents were released into the public to make
it appear as if government was making
concessions and that it was the GMA that was
being recalcitrant.
It must be noted that, government on several
occasions had put positions on the negotiation
table only to come back and withdraw them when
it had been agreed by both parties.
Negotiations ended abruptly on Sunday, 9th
August, 2015, when government put forward a
take-it-or-leave-it proposal to the GMA which
contained worse proposals compared to
government’s previous proposals to the GMA. It
became clear to the GMA then that, government
had taken an entrenched position and was not
ready to find solutions to the impasse but rather
was counting on its propaganda machinery as a
way out of the situation.
Meanwhile the GMA engaged the Ghana Health
Service Council and on two (2) occasions had
meetings with the Parliamentary Select Committee
of Health with the aim of making progress with
the negotiations.
Way forward
1. The on-going media war and propaganda
launched by the Government through putting out
of lies and half-truths do not add value to
negotiations. In the opinion of the GMA, this path
only leads to the inflammation of passions. This
rather worsens the situation and in so doing
boost the determination of the GMA to press
home our demand for a proper negotiated and
signed Conditions of Service.
2. The National Executive Council mindful of the
various developments including appeals by
various groups in the country has therefore taken
the decision that an Extra Ordinary General
Assembly meeting be held on Friday, 14th
August, 2015, to review the situation.
3. In the light of the above, the GMA calls on all
of its members to remain calm and steadfast in
these turbulent times.
Release of fourteen (14) House Officers at
Techiman Holy Family Hospital
The attention of the National Executive Council
has been drawn to events happening at the
Techiman Holy Family Hospital leading to the
release of 14 house officers from the institution
for reposting. The GMA will like to condemn the
recent phenomenon where heads of training
institutions at the least provocation threaten and
or release house officers to the Medical and
Dental Council for reposting.
This act amounts to intimidation and an
infringement on the rights of house officers to
participate in trade union activities, a right which
is enshrined in the Labour Act 651. Heads of all
health facilities are being admonished to stop
this practice with immediate effect. The GMA will
not hesitate to bring its full force to bear on such
institutions that perpetuate such inferior tactics
on its members. The GMA may in future advice
its members not to serve in such institutions if it
becomes necessary.
Ultimately the GMA wishes to remind all and
sundry that the current action however difficult
we find ourselves in, are aimed to finding long
term solutions towards labour relations and
improve on efficiency and quality care in the
health sector.
SIGNED
Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei
Dr. Frank Serebour