Health sector employees will from December 27 sign up for different labour unions to embark on an indefinite strike to press house their call for for the exemption of pension budget from the home Debt Exchange Programme (DEP).
The employees come with the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Health Services Workers’ Union (HSWU) and Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA).
This was once contained in a commentary issued in Accra on December 21.
It was once signed by means of the President of GMA, Dr Frank Serebour; President of GRNMA, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo; General Secretary of HSWU, Franklin Owusu Andah and Nathan Coompson, Chairman of GHOSPA.
According to the commentary, the strike motion would begin with the withdrawal of all Out-Patient services and products on December 27.
(*27*)It stated the employees would withdraw emergency services and products and later all services and products on January 2 and 9 respectively.
The commentary defined that the motion had develop into vital following the announcement by means of the Minister of Finance which induced the Organised Labour to claim a strike.
Organised Labour, on December 19, declared an indefinite strike from December 27 to drum house its call for for the federal government to exempt pension budget from the DEP.
The business motion adopted a one-week ultimatum given by means of organised labour for the federal government to rescind its choice to come with pension budget within the DEP, else employees “will advise themselves.”
Announcing the strike in Accra, the Secretary General of the TUC, Dr Yaw Baah, stated the federal government had failed to heed the calls for of organised labour.
(*27*)The calls for, he stated, had been communicated to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on December 12, this yr.
“The executive has refused to grant us our request that every one pension budget be exempted from the DEP. We have determined firmly that every one employees of Ghana are happening strike on December 27.
We will likely be on strike till our call for that every one pension budget be exempted from the DEP is granted,” he stated.
Dr Baah stated organised labour would now not compromise on its stance to offer protection to the pensions of employees, and that the federal government had the chance till December 27 to right kind its choice.
“We are not sitting down for our pension funds to be toyed with for the most vulnerable to suffer because somebody has made mistakes,” he added.
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Workers from quite a lot of labour unions, clad in crimson apparel and dressed in crimson armbands, won the announcement of the strike with chants and shouts of ‘No haircuts on our pensions’, ‘We won’t ever settle for haircut’ and ‘We will roll over haircuts’.
The Minister of Finance introduced that the federal government would enforce a voluntary DEP as a part of measures to cut back the debt burden and provides the federal government some respiring house to handle the fiscal demanding situations going through the rustic.
(*27*)With the DEP, home bondholders face steep rate of interest cuts and the lengthening of tenure on their investments.
Investors in dollar-denominated Eurobonds may also have to take care of each rate of interest cuts and the lack of up to 30 according to cent of the main quantities invested.
In addition, home debt buyers will likely be requested to alternate their present securities for brand new ones that can be offering a 0 coupon within the first yr, 5 according to cent in the second one and 10 according to cent within the 3rd yr.
Holders of temporary debt securities, comprising Treasury expenses of 91 days, 182 days and 364 days, will likely be excluded from the DEP.
Figures from the Central Securities Depository display that pension budget grasp six according to cent of the federal government’s home debt.
Author: Ghanaian Times
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