NLC Orders Striking Health Service Workers Union To Appear Before It

The National Labour Commission (NLC), has directed the leadership of the Health Services Workers’ Union to suspend its strike with immediate effect.

The directive comes after the Health Services Workers’ Union refused to call off their ongoing strike after a meeting with the government ended in a stalemate.

In response to this, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Ofosu Asamoah, says the NLC has directed the leadership of the Union to appear before the commission for deliberations.

“We have directed them to call off the strike and appear before the commission to settle the matter. They didn’t inform us of their action but we heard on the radio and we quickly contacted the ministry about it and they said they have also heard about it so negotiations are ongoing and we’ve asked them to call off the strike and appear before us,” he told Citi FM.

According to him, the Union has not made their grievances known to the government.

The HSWU is made up of records personnel, lab technicians, orderlies among others. They say governments have over the years, taking them for granted. They are therefore striking over their poor conditions of service.

They accuse the government of neglecting to review their conditions of service as agreed upon in 2016, even though those of their sister unions have been reviewed on two occasions.

Addressing journalists in Accra, General Secretary of the Health Services Workers’ Union which has some 40,000 members, Franklin Owusu Ansah, entreated all members to take part in the strike until they receive a favourable response from the government.

 “It is not the wish of the union to cause industrial disharmony and disrupt the smooth delivery of health services, but the continuous disregard by the government to respond to our simple request has pushed us to the wall and this far.”