In order to prevent more industrial strikes, the leadership of the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG) has requested that the government "give all Public Sector Workers" a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA).
The union expresses concern at the carelessness with which nurses' and midwives' welfare has been handled during these difficult economic times and calls on the government to step in and pay employees the COLA as it did in 2014 "in a comparable economic circumstance."
Throughout a statement released on Tuesday, the Union said that it anticipated "nothing less than a comparable stop gap measure to cushion the numerous Nurses and Midwives in the nation."
The threat follows a teacher union strike that has been going on for an undefined amount of time over demands for a 20% COLA and that has halted educational activity in pre-tertiary educational institutions all throughout the nation.
In order to hammer home this request, which was brought to the Employer's notice at the May Day celebration and followed up with a formal letter by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on June 24, 2022, the Unions in the education sector put down their tools yesterday. We, the members of the UNION OF PROFESSIONAL NURSES AND MIDWIVES, GHANA (UPNMG), are also requesting that the government immediately implement a COLA that accounts for at least 20% of our basic pay.
The nurses and midwives union stated that the strike that teachers announced in a joint press statement is a step in the right direction and deserves the complete support of all labour unions in the nation.
"We have been waiting for the holder of the Collective Bargaining Certificate for Nurses and Midwives to seek this COLA, but they haven't spoken anything in that regard. As the second-largest union in the nursing and midwifery profession, we have thus made it our mission to push the government to critically examine the situation as soon as possible.
As nurses and midwives play a significant part in the health delivery system, the sooner we start to think about revisiting the circumstances in which they work in Ghana, the better it would be for our health system, according to the statement signed by John Agbenyeavu, National PRO.