By Doreen Ampofo
The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), is accusing the Health Services Workers Union, HSWU, of intimidation following a threat by the union to embark on a strike on Monday, November 11, over what the Union says is stalled negotiations with the government over a new Collective Agreement.
The Union, in a statement, indicated that it submitted proposals to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission in November last year to initiate discussions for a mandatory review. However, despite several meetings for negotiation which began in May this year, no results have yielded.
At a news conference to react to the Health Services Workers Union, Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, FWSC, Ben Arthur said the claims by the Union are untrue and demand that the HSWU retract the statement and apologise to the Commission.
He said the FWSC has always shown great commitment towards the negotiation of Conditions of Service for members of the Health Services Workers’ Union, in line with Section 97 of the Labour Act 2003, Act 651.
Mr Arthur explained that after the HSWU submitted its proposals, the parties signed Rules of Engagement on Wednesday, 17th April 2024, to commence negotiations, adding that since then there have been several meetings with the health workers to negotiate their Conditions of Service.
He further explained that on 9th October, 2024, the parties met to conclude and sign an agreement. However, just before the meeting could end, the union made an appeal that the parties should hold on with the signing because HSWU believed the majority of their members would not benefit from the agreement and wished to table new items for negotiations.
Despite several cautions by the government team that these new demands would prolong the negotiations, the Union went ahead. The Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission said on 5th November 2024, the Health Services Workers Union was invited to a meeting on 7th November 2024, only for them to hurriedly issue a press release just hours before the meeting.
FWSC believes this is an unfair labour practice and a show of bad faith. The Commission is calling on the leadership of HSWU to retract the said press release and issue an apology. Mr. Ben Arthur said threatening and intimidating a party despite all the goodwill that Government has demonstrated amounts to bad faith, and Government cannot be accused of any delays.