Addressing a news conference in Accra on Thursday, Mr Kwaku Asante-Krobea, President of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), said the leadership was calling off the strike because of the positive response and appeal made to the over 7,000 striking nurses and midwives to return to work.
?Besides, we are attesting to the hope of the Controller and Accountant General?s Department, paying the withheld salaries of the over 7,000 and other Nurses and Midwives identified as Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives who are jointly on strike with the Psychiatric Nurses at the end of October 2015,? he added.
Mr Asante-Krobea, however, cautioned that the GRNA would fully support full-scale resumption of the action if disparities in the payment of the deferred and withheld salaries of affected members were not addressed.
He appealed to government to address all outstanding issues of salary without delay, to boost the confidence of practitioners and also improve the current unacceptable nurse and patient ratio situation.
?We desire that we providers of essential services must all times receive due respect and recognition by our paymasters, and our sacrifices must come with a reward without assigning us the posture of dignity better than other public sector workers because we believe that if is the services we provide that are essential and not necessarily we ourselves,? he said.
Mr Asante-Krobea condemned the disregard and ill treatment shown the Junior Nurses and Midwives, saying ?They have been given a raw deal as the paymaster had been insensitive to their plight for withholding their salaries for periods ranging from six to eleven months.?
Some of the nurses who spoke to the Ghana News Agency assured the public of returning to the hospitals on Friday, October 9, but warned that failure to pay their salaries would lead to the resumption of the strike.
Source : GNA/newsghana1.tempurl.host
