Join Politics � Doctors Tell Fair Wages Boss

The President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has admonished members of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to immediately resign their positions and enter into active politics. This, according to Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, was because members of FWSC have failed to behave like technocrats charged with the responsibility of addressing issues of befitting wages and salaries for the country�s public working class. Speaking at the opening session of the 53rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in Kumasi on Friday, under the theme, �Carnage on our roads-the health impact on the country,� the GMA President said members of FWSC were behaving like politicians. Dr Winful stated that the national exercise to produce a scientific blue print for wage and salary had been botched by members of FWSC. The GMA President noted that there was no objective reference point for determining salaries and wages on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), the new pay policy. The vociferous out-going GMA President indicated that the country was back to the old systems of open market bargaining and patronage in wage and salary administration. Stressing that the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), Additional Duty Hours Allowance (ADHA) and Health Salary Structures I and II (HSS I and II) failed because of patronage and back hand dealings, Dr Winful said the same fate will befall the SSSS. He emphasized that the future of the new pay policy introduced by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration could only be secured if subjectivity and patronage, which are the order of the day, are eliminated from the work of FWSC. The GMA President stated that the National Executive Council (NEC) of GMA suspects that there is a deliberate attempt on the part of FWSC to cheat doctors and that the leadership will do everything possible to resist such attempt. Dr Winful entreated organizations that used their moral authority to appeal to GMA to suspend the withdrawal of services to use that same moral suasion to impress on government to initiate a process to review the implementation of the SSSS by FWSC, especially when it pertains to doctors and sustainability. �It should also be a matter of concern to this nation that by placing many categories of health professionals at levels that are higher than the scores attained, the FWSC has further increased the overall wage bill by almost 40 percent and this has dire financial implications for the sustainability of the programme,� the GMA President observed. He noted that many countries have successfully conducted salary reviews, stressing that the country must be guided by best practices and not the whims and caprices of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FWSC or any individual. He pointed out that as it stands now, the SSSS neither has scientific base nor professional touch, adding that it cannot stand the test of time. Dr Winful reiterated that the system could fail like the GUSS, ADHA and HSS I and II. The GMA is waiting for the ruling of the National Labour Commission�s (NLC) compulsory arbitration panel. Dr Winful condemned some doctors occupying management positions who issued threats to junior doctors and made pronouncements that undermined the collective effort of the association in the course of the recent industrial unrest. The NEC, he disclosed, has taken a serious view of the development and cautioned members to desist from sabotaging the association�s efforts because such members will in the near future be subjected to necessary disciplinary actions outlined in the GMA�s constitution.