Industrial Relation Experts Are Needed To Handle The Negotiation Between Gov�t And Doctors - Labor Expert

Former Chairman of Ghana Labor Commission, Mr. Joseph Ackon Ayittey believes the solution to end the squabble between the government and the medical doctors over their conditions of service are to employ the intermediary service of labor relation experts.

According to the labor expert, the current happenings on the negotiation table will not yield any positive results if there is no transparency and good faith from both parties.

Speaking on Okay Fm’s "Ade Akye Abia" Morning Show, Mr. Joseph Ackon Ayittey said the doctors forming part of the essential service workers do not have any right to go on strike as it is against the labor law but added they have the right to press home their demands.

He therefore urged the employer [government] to open up to the doctors which of the conditions it can meet rather than to banter each other in the media as this will worsen the situation.

To him, the only way out in this negotiation is to fall on labor experts to handle as the experts can bring to their understanding the essence of the demands and the availability of which of the demand can be granted depending on the purse of the state.

“The parties need an expert at negotiation to handle the situation and come up with possible agreeable terms depending on the economic situation in the country. When they do this, there will be understanding and everything will be back to normal,” he advised.

“The experts will be able to know the value of their demands and explain to them why the government can or cannot afford certain portions of their demands. It is not necessarily that the government should accept all of their demands; this is why it is called negotiation,” he added.

The labor expert feared that if this is not resolved in time, politics will find its way into this negotiation issue as it is not always centered on economic issue; stressing that the negotiation for the conditions of service for the medical doctors need industrial relation experts for better analysis of the demands of the doctors.