Doctors Strike - Terminate appointment of doctors if… - Gamey

Source: Daily Graphic Ghana - Labour consultant, Mr Austin Gamey has said government has delayed in dismissing doctors who are on strike over their conditions of service.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Mr Gamey said it was about time government took the necessary steps to put its house in order. “I charge the employer to immediately take action to stop them from working for him. 
He should sack the doctors immediately at once. They should not be part of the employment records of Ghana,” he said.

Dr Gamey who was speaking on Accra based Radio Gold indicated that Section 30(3) of the Labour Act 2003 gives government the right to dismiss a worker without notice. According to him, the entrenched position by the doctors was a deliberate act to make their employer “feel bad” and for that matter meet their needs.

Unfortunately, he said, the doctors have “misfired” and their plans “have backfired on them.” Mr Gamey said the blood of the lives that have been lost over the three week period that the doctors have been on strike will be required of them by God. “You deliberately deny the people of a care and as a result they should die, you have killed and God will hold you responsible for it,” he said.

He asserted that the doctors were ashamed of themselves thus their entrenched position, thinking that government would immediately give in to their demands, but “they didn’t know that what they started would travel to this extent.”

“The assumption is that the employer is going to buckle out because they don’t want to see Ghanaians suffer. They didn’t think people will be bashing them…”

Although Mr Gamey conceded the fact that doctors, and for that matter any other employee are entitled to conditions of service, the approach should be done properly.

He also blamed government partly for the current situation of strikes, saying, “They should not have started the negotiation with them at all. You don’t begin negotiations with any sort of conditionality”.

Mr Gamey further stated Section 127(3) of the Labour Act 2003 states that no worker or group of workers should threaten or intimidate an employer during the time of negotiation.

He further noted that should the doctors have a change of mind over their strike action, government should only accept them on their (government) terms.