Mortuary Workers To Lay Down Tools Tomorrow

By this time tomorrow, dead bodies in some Public health facilities would be left unattended to if government fails to review the remuneration of mortuary workers.

The Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana (MOWAG) would begin an indefinite strike from Tuesday, March 5, as a last resort to compel the Ministry of Health (MoH) to among other things, review their salaries and other working conditions.

According to the General Secretary of the Association, Richard Jordan, “Nobody will come to work, no mortuary worker will be present to attend to dead bodies, they will be left in wards and emergency centres.”

It could be recalled that in November last year, mortuary workers had embarked on a strike action which lasted almost a week but was suspended after the health ministry promised to intervene swiftly.

Three months down memory lane, MOWAG is yet again, up in arms with the MoH for failing to honour its promises.

The workers stated categorically that they would not be ‘fooled’ a second time in suspending the planned strike adding that “It will be an indefinite strike.”

“The Ministry has not been positive with us and we cannot allow this continue, they keep tossing us up and down and this time around we think that its proper for us morally and legally to embark on a strike.

“Nothing truthful has come out, all the things we put on paper; we have not seen any of them materialize. We realize they want to play games with us we cannot allow this anymore,” Richard Jordan submitted.

According to him, he and his colleagues will only return upon a considerable deal from the Ministry of Health and Labour Union.

Aside unfavourable remuneration, the workers have bemoaned the seeming poor conditions of service including working beyond their stipulated time.

They lamented over poor sanitation; not getting the appropriate protective clothing and a general poor maintenance of the mortuary facilities.

“Our rights have been violated; some of us work on holidays when we are supposed to rest. We are not being given holiday allowances,” the secretary revealed.

“We struggle to get protective clothing. Even with salary rise, we are at the bottom of the structure. So on Tuesday, it is going to be an indefinite strike. We are not coming to the mortuary until something concrete and positive is communicated to us,” he added.

The MoH has since responded to this threat with a promise to resolve the concerns of the mortuary workers and to avert the impending nationwide strike.