General News of Saturday, 13 April 2013

Source: Joy Online

I would sack Fair Wages boss if I had power - Kweku Baako

Editor in Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper Kweku Baako Jnr has blamed officials of the Fair Wages Commission as well as the Labour Commission for reneging on their responsibility.

He said the season of strikes which has engulfed the country is because “somebody somewhere is not up to the responsibility entrusted to him or her.”

Speaking on Joy FM and Multi TV’s news analysis programme Newsfile, Saturday, Kweku Baako said if he had power to resolve the current impasse between doctors, teachers etc, his axe will first fall on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.

“I will sack the boss of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission,” he stated, insisting that the state institutions tasked with the responsibility of resolving and negotiating salary issues have not learnt from the experiences in the past.

The New Crusading Guide newspaper editor read out a Daily Graphic report in 2007 in which doctors had declared a similar strike against the Kufuor led administration.

He said the posturing of the parties involved, the issues they discussed then are the same issues playing out in 2013.

He wondered if the country learnt any lesson at all from what happened six years ago.

“What is wrong with us? We recycle problems and never find solutions,” he lamented.

Kweku Baako Jnr said because the doctors’ services have been described as essential and therefore debars from embarking on strike, authorities have been sluggish in dealing with their grievances.

He appealed to the doctors to agree to a compromise, adding, “the system has failed them. There is bad faith” but they ought to show mercy and return to work.

Meanwhile, a member of IMANI Ghana, Bright Simmons says the current impasse on the labour front is as a result of suspicion between the doctors and the government.

Bright Simmons suggested that government, having agreed to pay the monies in tranches, must commit itself by issuing promissory notes at a bank for and on behalf of the doctors so that latter will access the monies on the dates government itself has agreed to pay.