Nurses And Mid-wives To Strike Over Unpaid Salary Arrears

Several hundreds of newly recruited nurses and mid-wives across the country have threatened to embark on a strike action if their 18-months salary arrears are not paid by the Health Ministry in the next few days.

The junior Nurses and Mid-wives say several complaints forwarded to the Ministry of Health have yielded no results.

They are also threatening legal action to compel the Health Ministry to release their arrears.

The junior Nurses and Mid-wives claim that the Health Ministry has issued a circular asking all health facilities to cease payment of the arrears since the finance Ministry has not budgeted for the salaries of the young nurses and mid-wives who started their compulsory one-year probation in February 2009.

They also complain that they have not been issued any appointment letters six months after their probationary period.

In an interview with Enoch Agyepong Ashanti Regional Spokesperson of the Junior Nurses and Mid-wives of 2008/09, he said they have done everything that they are supposed to do but still to no avail.

“As I am talking to you now Ghana Health Service has not issued us our appointment letters while our colleagues are working, we have informed our Parent Association and we are just affiliates of the association and they all agree with whatever steps or measures we are taking. We have given the government up to the end of this month. From the look of things salaries have come and we have not received anything, they have not paid us our arrears”.

“We are still talking with our lawyers and very soon our lawyers will issue a statement to the Attorney-General’s department and if they fail to respond we will go to the law courts. But there will be demonstration actions and press conferences, we are also going to lay down our tools and have a sit down strike until this issue is resolved with the Ministry of Health”

Source: citifmonline/Ghana