NLC Made The Wrong Move To Drag GMA To Court; It Will Worsen Matters � Kofi Jumah

Maxwell Kofi Jumah, a former NPP MP for Asokwa has said that the National Labour Commission�s (NLCs) move to have sued the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in court would rather aggravate issues since government is also not ready to hear the plight of the doctors. Public sector doctors have been on strike for about two weeks, which begun with their refusal to treat out-patients over the non-payment of their salary arrears and distortions in their pensions and market premium on the new pay structure. The doctors have since activated the second phase of their strike by refusing to treat emergency cases even though government has agreed to pay their arrears in installment and the National Labour Commission described their strike as illegal. This pushed the National Labour Commission to drag the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to court seeking to compel the striking doctors to go back to work. But Maxwell Kofi Jumah who was speaking on Adom FM, suggest that �I think the court case is a wrong move, I believe that will rather worsen the case and they (doctors) will not be compelled to go back to work. I was hoping they (NLC) will negotiate with the doctors to understand them.� He however said; since Kofi Annan amicably pleaded with the doctors to withdraw their strike, the National Labour Commission (NLC) should have capitalized on to negotiate with the doctors. �Since Kofi Annan pleaded with the doctors, I was thinking they (NLC) will use his (Kofi Annan) wisdom to call on the GMA president to negotiate. The court case will rather deepen their wound and that will not lead the NLC anywhere. ��If you listen to Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, president of the GMA, he is not representing himself but the whole of the GMA, so if they (NLC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), it does not end there. He also have to explain things to his executives, so if they don�t approve it doesn�t work,� he explained. Meanwhile, an Accra High Court on Thursday adjourned to Wednesday, May 8, a suit directing the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to call off its strike. The adjournment was necessitated when the counsel for the GMA told the court presided over by Justice Edward Amoako Asante that the Association was served at a short notice.