Ghana Medical Association to meet on salary distortions
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Council will this week meet and declare its official position on the distortions created following the migration of doctors and other health professionals onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The meeting, which is one of its usual Council meetings, will among other issues discuss the problems erupting from their migration in December 2011, resulting in more distortions.
Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, President of the (GMA) told the Ghana News Agency on Monday when responding to comments by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) that it was not responsible for the distortions.
The FWSC advised the GMA to trace the shortfall in its members’ salaries at the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD).
The Commission said it should not be blamed for the shortfalls but urged the pay roll outfit of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to liaise with the CAGD to address the anomaly.
Dr Opoku-Adusei explained that the GMA had a meeting with FWSC, which was attended by the Ministry of Health and the CAGD, and that the distortions did not come from the GHS’s pay roll office.
“After our Council meeting, we will then decide on this matter and will make it known,” he added.
The GMA last Wednesday told the GNA in Accra that the migration of health personnel onto the SSSS had created irregularities, which had attracted serious concerns.
According the GMA, the migration had resulted in professionals receiving lower salaries than what they were previously earning, hinting that the development might result in another battle between the GMA and the FWSC this year.
Dr Opoku-Adusei explained that the National Labour Commission (NLC) had ruled after the compulsory arbitration meeting that the matter should be resolved by the Ministry of Health and the GHS Council.
He said the NLC had no jurisdiction over the matter and letters written to the Council had not attracted any response.
The doctors, in October 2011, staged a 14-day nation-wide strike over the inability of the FWSC to provide unequivocal evidence of migration of doctors onto the SSSS and the ambiguous stance of the SSS Secretariat on the position of District Directors of Health Service and Medical Superintendents.
The inability of GMA and FWSC to resolve the problem compelled the Commission to refer the issue to NLC to apply the compulsory arbitration as provided for under Section 162 of the Labour Act.
The NLC ruled that the CAGD should pay the doctors their SSSS whilst that of District and Medical Superintendents should be settled by the GHS Council.
Source: GNA