NURSES SET TO STRIKE IF PHARMACISTS GET HIGHER
SALARY
By Frank Kumi, Spokesperson, GHOSPA, Northern Region
Member, Pharmaceutical Society Of Ghana
The threat issued by the President of the Ghana Registered Nurses
Association (GRNA), Mr. Asante Krobea to embark upon a strike if
the demands of striking pharmacists are acceded to should not
be entertained since it is entirely misplaced and staggers on
tenuous logic.
Mr. Asante's threats is based upon the fact that pharmacists have
been moved a step upwards from 18L to 18H on the Single Spine
Salary Structure (SSSS) and therefore the entry point of the
degree nurse should also be treated same. It is very startling to
realize that his demand lacks basic logic, and not even premised
on any scientific basis.
It is important for the public to bear cognizance that prior to the
implementation of the Single Spine, a comprehensive job
evaluation for every professional group was executed by labour
consultants, Price Water Coopers. The job evaluation, based upon
the job description of every single profession provided by the
employer sought to establish a scientific backing, devoid of
personal judgments and bias during the determination of the
salaries of public sector workers.
After a Job Re-evaluation by Price Water Cooper, it was revealed
that a host of other professionals—the entry point of a Nurse
inclusive--scored far below the level of the pharmacist grade. As
clear as it was, the exit point of the nursing profession on the
SSSS, a Principal Nurse, even scored 597—only 28 points higher
than the entry point of the pharmacist. The Pharmacist scored
569 while the Medical Officer (entry grade of doctors on the SSSS)
obtained 791.
However, contrary to the rational for conducting the scientific job
evaluation of which huge amounts of moneys had spent on by the
Government, the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) and
the Management of the health ministry arbitrary placed all degree-
holding health professionals on the same level—18L. Upon
realizing this galling and despicable injustice, pharmacists
registered their displeasure and threatened to withdraw their
services. National Labour Commission (NLC) stepped in and
decided to settle the contentious matter of grade structure of
GHOSPA members through a compulsory arbitration since the
FWSC persistently disregarded the plea of pharmacists.
After an arduous and painstaking patience of seeking justice
spanning two years, occasionally characterized by legitimate
agitation by pharmacists, the NLC decided to rule on the grade
structure of government and hospital pharmacists. Even though
pharmacists initially demanded that their entry point is started
from 19L, the NLC upon meticulous analysis of the reasonable
fundamental basis of the clamours being made by the
pharmacists, eventually decided to start them from 18H.
It is interesting to note that the Ghana Medical Association (GMA)
had similar justifiable concerns after the initial placement of its
members unto the SSSS. The Medical Officer who scored 791, had
been placed at 20H, where as the Principal Nursing Officer also
with a lower score of 597 had been placed at the same level of
20H irrespective of the scientific analysis and salary relativities
espoused by the Job Re-Evaluation. This inconsistency was
however resolved-- Medical Officer was moved from 20H to 21L—
at Dodowa by the FWSC after unrelenting protest by the GMA
following a stakeholder's forum at the instance of the Ministry of
Health (MoH).
This entire blatant disregard to the scientific basis of establishing
salaries of government workers has all along been the
fundamental cause of the unremitting labour agitation as well as
inflation of the wage bill. Some professional groups on the SSSS,
particularly the nurses were favoured by the FWSC without any
justification; but based on mere benevolence, discretion and
disregard to job evaluation. There is therefore a strong cause to
believe that some officials at the Fair Wages and Salary
Commission are flouting the fundamental principles of any Job
Evaluation: strict commitment to objectivity, fairness, and
equitable treatment to all employees.
Mr Smith Graham, the Chief Executive Officer of FWSC whose
spouse happen to be a public sector nurse and Mr Cornelius
Yawson (Head of Grievance Review Committee of FWSC) believed
to be the labour consultant for the nurses have taken a dangerous
personal stance for disregarding these tenets of Job Evaluation. In
a confidential document to the NLC, Mr Graham insinuated that if
the NLC accedes to the pharmacists quest for justice, the over
24,000 nurses shall also have a cause to disrupt the labour front.
In that document, according to him, the minority of 500
pharmacists have no political impact, and that any strike action
embarked upon by pharmacists would have a significantly lesser
impact as compared to the nursing work force.
It should therefore come as no surprise that following NLC's ruling
of serving justice, the nurses are sequentially embarking on a
purposeless escapade of resisting the pharmacists' demand for
fairness and justice. Could it be that Mr Graham and Mr Yawson
are using the nurses as professional pawns to intentionally deny
justice to the pharmacists?
The Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana, Ministry of
Employment, and the Ministry of Health as a matter of urgency,
institute an investigation into the murky conduct of these two
main officials at the FWSC as their actions are a complete
antithesis to harmony and unity among labour unions, in addition
to national development.
All hunches indicate that the strange and sudden threat of strike
action by the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) are
undeniably being fomented by these two gentlemen at the FWSC
who are embroiled in a serious conflict of interest.
The farcical demand by the President of the GRNA that nurses
should receive the same salaries as pharmacists, without any
scientific ground clearly has no merit and should therefore be
regarded as a malicious attempt in causing a stir and disunity in
the health sector.
Nurses' educational training and that of the pharmacists are
completely different so is their unique roles played in the delivery
of healthcare. In effect, the Job Evaluation based on their
respective job descriptions elicited the dichotomy between these
two health professions. Mr. Asante and the FWSC are being
challenged to boldly publish the scores of the nurses and the
pharmacists as shown by the Job Evaluation conducted by Price
Water Coopers.

Sensational.

Lmao...