Accra, Sept 12, GNA - The Volta Region branch of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association on Monday said "rotation nurses" would embark on an industrial action to back their demand for payment of Additional Duty Hour Allowance (ADHA).

In a letter to the Regional Director of Health Services dated August 5, 2005 and signed Mr Samuel V. K. Agbo and Mr Michael Annani, regional chairman and secretary respectively, the association urged the Director to help it to tackle the issues at stake as the rotation nurses were aggrieved.

A copy of the letter obtained by GNA in Accra on Monday warned that the GRNA would not be responsible for any after effect of the strike action should the authorities fail to address the lapses. The association said the Ghana Health Service, in a letter dated June 28, 2005 captioned "ADHA Monthly Submissions," instructed that the payment of ADHA for April and subsequent months for some categories of health workers including rotation nurses be stopped.

It said the instruction ran contrary to the Kumasi Forum on ADHA of April 27, 2001, which stated that professionals on internship like housemen, medical laboratory technicians, pharmacists and nurses who were just to be formally appointed into the service should be paid ADHA based on their first entering point basic salary.

"To the Association, the rotation nurses are part of the nurses who are assigned duty in the ward. Considering the attrition rate of nurses, these (rotation) nurses run the prescribed duty time of the hospital where they worked."

The association said the GRNA nurses had worked for the month of March till June when the directive was issued.

Unfortunately, however, the Regional Health Service had decided not to pay the ADHA for March that had been budgeted for the rotation nurses. The association said it considered the new directive as unfair labour practice and called for its withdrawal. 12 Sept 05