Employment & Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, says meeting the demands of striking government pharmacists is almost impossible, explaining that there is no budget to support their demands.
According to him, government did not make provisions for market premiums for the agitating pharmacists in the 2016 budget.
“There is little that can be done because it was not budgeted for in the 2016 budget, therefore, government is unable to accede to their request,” Haruna Iddrisu said at a press conference Wednesday.
GHOSPA, on Monday, declared an indefinite strike in protest of what they call the failure of the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to address discrepancies in their market premium payment.
But, the Labour minister believes the strike will only discomfort patients and, has, therefore, urged the pharmacists to rescind their decision.
He said though there is no budget provision, government is committed to finding a solution to the issue.
Haruna Iddrisu revealed a committee formed to look into the issue had completed its work and recommendations forwarded to the Grievances Committee for the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to take the necessary action.
The NLC had argued that the strike was inimical to the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian and has since dragged GHOSPA to court.
No Retreat
But, GHOSPA said it will continue its strike over the market premiums until there is a clear commitment by government to resolve their grievances.
General Secretary of GHOSPA, Emmanuel Owusu Owiafe, told Citi FM, “As it stands now, if there is no clear unambiguous commitment to resolving this issue, we will be unable to go back to work.”
GHOSPA started its indefinite strike on Monday to push for changes to their market premiums and said it was forced to resort to this action after the breakdown of negotiations with government, spanning six years, over its grade structure and placement in public health facilities.
The pharmacists have lamented discrepancies in its interim market premiums, claiming that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission placed pharmacists working in university hospitals on a premium of 1.14, whilst the pharmacists working in the Ghana Health Service are on a premium of 0.58.
Mr Owiafe lamented that “this single spine salary structure has made less of us (public sector pharmacist) and that we are not earning what our scores entitle us to. The level of faith we have now is a little bit reduced because not even intervention from the chief of staff and the committee he set up was implemented and the National Labour Commission (NLC) was not able to enforce its own ruling by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.”
NLC Suit
Two days into the GHOSPA strike, NLC filed a suit at the Labour Division of the High Court, seeking to compel the striking pharmacists to call off their strike.
Though the NLC did not describe this strike as illegal, it has said GHOSPA’s actions were not in the interest of potential patrons, hence its decision to resort to the law courts.