<<Print>>A Labour Division of an Accra Fast Track Court has today [Thursday] adjourned the case brought against the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) by the General Secretary of the United Front Party, Listowell Kusi Poku.
The Adjournment is to allow for the GMA who entered conditional appearance to file all documentary evidence for the court to determine whether the writ filed by Listowell Kusi Poku is legitimate. The General Secretary of the United Front Party, Listowell Kusi Poku filed a writ at the court asking for an interlocutory injunction to declare the ongoing strike by doctors illegal. The court has since fixed August 26 as the new date to hear the case.
He is among other things praying the court to declare the strike as “illegal” and further “compelling the them to go back to the negotiation table.” Kusi-Poku is also seeking “a perpetual injunction order compelling the defendant to return to work and to stay at work until the conclusion of negotiations.”
Kusi in his writ said he finds the conduct of the doctors as “quite disturbing in view of the crucial role medical doctors play in any nation’s life and wondered if a strike action should not be the last resort especially since it had not heard of any negotiations between the Government or its representatives which had broken down preceding the announcement that the defendant was embarking on a strike action.” Though he said in his writ that “while the defendant is entitled to its demands,” he added that “as far as improvement on existing conditions are concerned same must be done on a gradual basis and the defendant’s employer ought to consider these demands holistically within the context of existing resources available to it so as not to default its implementation in the event that it finally accedes to its demands.”
Doctors have been on strike for nearly two weeks now after several negotiations on their conditions of service broke down. President John Dramani Mahama has insisted that the strike by the aggrieved doctors is “illegal” and “does not make sense” while urging them to return to work while negotiations continue.