Stop forcing workers to strike before honoring agreements – Justice Yankson urges gov’t – Nsemkeka
Vice President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has issued a strong rebuke to the government over its handling of labor agreements with professional bodies, following the recent nurses’ strike that paralyzed healthcare services nationwide.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile program, Dr. Justice Yankson minced no words: “Once government agrees on something with professional bodies, it just honor it.”
His comments came as the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) suspended their strike action pending further negotiations.
Drawing from his nearly two decades of experience in labor negotiations, Dr. Yankson revealed a troubling pattern in government-labor relations:
“The moment you go into the details proper and see the trajectory that they may have traversed up till today, the nuances, the discussions, the disagreements and all of it, then you begin to realize that no we need to pause, have a good and critical look at their issues and resolve them.”
He expressed frustration at the recurring cycle of industrial actions, noting: “From where I sit and the experience I’ve had in the day by day field for pretty close to 20 years dealing with some of these issues, I’m very clear in my mind that most of the time, labor gets to this point as a result of a seeming inadequate engagement between the employer and labor.”
The medical expert painted a picture of workers being pushed to the brink after years of unfulfilled promises:
“I realized that in most cases, the workers give enough room, sometimes years, to the employer to do what is right, and it gets to a point they are forced to take actions like this.”
Dr. Yankson questioned the government’s last-minute approach to crisis resolution.
“When the actions happen, the engagements sometimes don’t even improve, for days before they come to the table and say, look, let’s look at things properly, and within hours to maximum, a day, or sometimes two, the issues are resolved so I always ask myself, why do we wait till we get to that end.”