Nurses and midwives at the Tamale Teaching Hospital have withdrawn their services due to unfavourable working conditions.
The health personnel say they have been unfairly treated by management of the hospital in the allocation of accommodation.
Joy News’ Northern Regional Correspondent, Hashmin Mohammed who was at the hospital, reports that the personnel are enraged after several attempts to get management to address the issue proved unsuccessful.
They are demanding that accommodation facilities allocated solely for nurses be returned to them.
The nurses have also directed that no allocation of accommodation be made until a residential accommodation committee is set up to address the issues of accommodation at the hospital.
Spokesperson for the aggrieved nurses and midwives, Musah Salifu said several promises made to them by management to deal with the issue have not materialised.
However, management of the hospital has announced that they will be meeting with the nurses and midwives in a bid to address the issues and get them back to work before close of day.
Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Misbao Mohammed said management is prepared to engage the workers despite their [management] being given only 24 hours’ notice before they embarked on the strike, a step which goes against the labour laws.
Ghana’s Labour Act (Act 651) of 2003 stipulates in section 159 subsection (b) that where “the dispute remains unresolved at the end of the arbitration proceeding, either party intending to take strike action or institute lockout, shall give written notice of this to the other party and the Commission, with seven days after failure to agree to refer the dispute to voluntary arbitration or the termination of the proceedings”.
Misbao Mohammed is hopeful that a consensus will be arrived at after the meeting with the nurses.
