Nurses, midwives union threaten strike over COLA

The leadership of the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG) has asked the government to “pay all Public Sector Workers” a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) to avert further industrial actions.

The Union says it is surprised at the laxity with which the welfare of nurses and midwives have been bundled within these hard economic times and wants the government to intervene by paying workers the COLA as was done in 2014 “in a similar economic situation”.

According to the Union in a statement issued Tuesday, it expects “nothing short of a similar stop-gap measure to cushion the many Nurses and Midwives in the country.”

The threat comes in the wake of the ongoing indefinite strike by teacher unions over demands for a 20 per cent COLA, an action that has brought educational activities in pre-tertiary educational institutions across the country to a halt.

“Yesterday, Unions in the education sector laid down their tools to drum home this request which was brought to the attention of the Employer during the May Day celebration and followed up with a formal letter by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on the 24″‘ of June 2022. We, the members of the UNION OF PROFESSIONAL NURSES AND MIDWIVES, GHANA (UPNMG) are equally calling on the government to as a matter of urgency to introduce at least 20% of our basic salaries as COLA while we wait for the managers of the economy to turn things round. The strike called by teachers in their joint press release is a call in the right direction and deserve the full backing of all labour unions in the country,” said the nurses and midwives union.

“We have waited for the bearer of the Collective Bargaining Certificate for Nurses and Midwives to make a move in demanding for this COLA but little is heard from them. We have thus taken it upon ourselves as the second largest union within the Nursing and Midwifery profession to appeal to the government to as a matter of urgency take a critical look at the matter. The earlier we begin to think about relooking at the conditions in which Nurses and Midwives work in Ghana the better it will be for our health system as Nurses and Midwives play a major role in the health delivery system,” the statement, signed by John Agbenyeavu, National PRO, said.

Source: Graphic