Angry Nurses Threaten Court Action -Over Unpaid Salaries

Nurses and Midwives demonstrating in Kumasi
THE NATIONAL Democratic Congress (NDC) government has been given a five-day ultimatum to settle the amount it owes the Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives, Ghana, or risk being hauled to court.

'The Government must pay all salaries and outstanding arrears due us by November 30, this year. Failure by government to meet this deadline means heading to the law court to seek redress,' the peeved nurses threatened.

This threat was captured in a petition which the nurses and the midwives presented to President Mahama through the Ashanti Regional Minister after a demonstration in Kumasi on Tuesday morning. The petition was received by Bimpong Marfo, the Regional Security Coordinator, on behalf of the Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong.

Asare Danquah Jefferson, National Coordinator, Coalition for Unpaid Nurses and Midwives, who signed the petition, bemoaned how their efforts to settle the matter amicably with government had failed.

The irate nurses and midwives hit the streets to demonstrate because they claimed that they had not been paid their salaries and arrears over a six to nineteen-month period by government.

They disclosed that some of them had been paid for only three months, irrespective of the number of months that they had worked, and that their SSNIT contributions had also not been paid.

According to them, most of the nurses had worked for two to six months without appointment letters, adding that the delay in the payment of their salaries and arrears had resulted in the devaluation of the money due to the economic crisis the country has been plunged into. Threat

Mr. Danquah Jefferson stated emphatically that if government failed to act by the expiry of the deadline, the nurses and the midwives concerned would have no other alternative but resort to the law court for redress. Low Turnout

Despite the wide publicity about the demonstration, a few nurses and midwives turned up for the show on Tuesday thereby minimizing the work of the policemen that were dispatched to protect the demonstrators.

The leadership of the nurses and the midwives association explained that the low turn-up for the demonstration was the cause of adverse poverty that had hit the nurses and the midwives because of government's refusal to pay them over several months.

'Some of us had been going to work on foot for some months now because we are broke due to government's failure to pay us,' some of them agitated, adding that most of their colleagues could not get money for transportation for the demonstration.

Danquah Jefferson stated at the Cultural Centre – the starting point of the demonstration – that the low turnout had not in any way defeated the group's agenda, noting, the few number present would fight for the whole group. Placards

The agitated nurses and midwives were not perturbed as they walked through the city, wearing red bands and holding placards with inscriptions, telling the government to pay them.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi