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There is simmering tension within the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) over what the Coalition of Concerned Nurses and Midwives described as illegal increment of the dues and building levies without recourse to them.

According to them, the leadership at their 16th Biennial Delegates Conference in Cape Coast required two-third of their 109 delegates to form a quorum to take such a decision but the decision was taken without quorum.

The national president of the Coalition of Concerned Nurses and Midwives Justice Badam Parmaak told the DAILY HERITAGE in an interview that they are unhappy with the decision of the leadership and therefore made frantic effort for them to reverse the decision but to no avail.

According to him, beginning January 2018 their dues has been increased from 1.5% of their basic salary to 2.0% while their building levy also moves from GHc10.00 to GHȼ20.00.

He said, the members would this either today or tomorrow petition the National Labour Commission, the Labour Ministry and the GRNMA and if their petition is not addressed, it would proceed to court to place an injunction on its implementation in January.

Few members pay

According to the Parmaak, the leadership of the association has failed to ensure that all registered members pay their dues and that has left only a few people being over burdened.

He added that the nurse’s fund has also been increased from GHȼ50.00 a development they are unhappy about.

Confusion

At the GRNMA conference the nurses were told that both the Professional Identification of Nurses (PIN) and the Assisted Identification of Nurses (AIN) had expired automatically and “whether it actually expired or not, it demands that every nurse renew their PIN or AIN before the beginning, because the Nurses and Midwives Council is introducing a new policy from January next year.

According to them, even members who have defaulted years for non renewal of PIN or AIN should pay the usual GHȼ50.00 to renew. However, their dues and building levy had been reviewed to 2% from 1.5% and GHȼ20.00 from GHȼ10.00

More shock

Some of the regional representatives who were not part of those that took the decision they are yet “to come out of the shock! If you were at that Conference, you would clearly appreciate the fact that there was no voting there to decide anything!”

According to them, “the figures being circulated out there were figures cooked from Accra and brought to Cape Coast. The Conference was characterised with threats, intimidation and suffocations.”

“Indeed, it was the worst form of autocracy ever witnessed anywhere in the world. The ordinary nurse/midwife had no voice in this conference,” the source told the paper.

Efforts to get the president of the GRNMA for his reaction failed as calls directed to his telephone lines went unanswered.