Accra, June 21, GNA - Members of the Greater Accra Branch of the Health Workers Group (HWG) have rejected the contents of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between their leadership and government over the weekend and therefore refused to call off their strike action.

The angry workers in a meeting held at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Wednesday argued that they had given government enough time to come out with a workable solution to the disparities in the salaries of health workers to ensure equity and fairness.

The meeting was to enable the Greater Accra Regional Executives of the HWG to brief their members on the MOU signed with government over the weekend and plead with them to call off the strike action. Mrs Mary Ann Sakyifio, Greater Accra Regional Chairperson of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), urged the workers to go back to work as negotiation continued.

She said, in as much as it was important for members to fight for what was due them, the need to consider the plight of the ordinary citizen who was suffering unduly must also be taken into consideration. According to her, representatives of the Health Workers Group nationwide agreed to the content of the MOU at an emergency meeting on Tuesday in Accra after their leaders had briefed them.

Mrs. Sakyifio stated that the representatives were made to vote for or against the resumption of work and majority voted in favour to resume work whilst government continued with measures to address their concerns.

She told the GNA that once it has been accepted and agreed nation-wide to call off the strike, "I believe it will take some time for tempers to calm down and we should expect full staff at work by the weekend."

"At the moment, everybody is charged and angry with the arrangement but as nurses and health workers, we have the health of our patients at heart and we owe it a duty to care for them," she said. A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to some departments of the hospital saw a skeleton staff at post.

At the Out-Patients Department, some nurses were seen in their uniforms and others in mufti attending to patients.

Some patients the GNA spoke to expressed disappointment at the situation and appealed to the health workers to resume work for the sake of Ghanaians.

Mr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, Government Spokesperson on Social Services, in an interview with GNA, described the reaction by the Greater Accra Branch of HWG as unfortunate.

He said the complaints by HWG about the distortions and inequity between them on one hand and the doctors on the other hand could not be resolved through strike actions.

"Strike actions cannot resolve distortions; such distortions can only be resolved through dialogue."

He appealed to the members of the Greater Accra Branch of the HWG to resume work whilst government together with their leaders worked on the discrepancies.

Members of the HWG two weeks ago embarked on a strike action to demand equity in their salary structure for all health workers. Their strike action came during another industrial action of doctors who were demanding the implementation of a new salary structure and payment of arrears. Doctors have resumed work but work at the hospitals has been going on at a snail's pace because of the absence of other health workers.

The health workers after hearing the package for doctors withdrew their services until their salaries were reviewed to clear all the discrepancies. 21 June 06