Member of Parliament for Buem constituency Hon. Kofi Iddie Adams has urged government to prioritize the petitions of mortuary workers in the country.
This follows notifications from the Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana (MOWAG) of a strike action on 29th November, 2023, due t unsatisfied negotiation terms.
The onset of a strike by the association was announced in a statement dated 20th November, following an inconclusive meeting with the government, with their grievances yet to be addressed.
“At the general meeting of members of MOWAG, it was agreed that since all avenues to resolve our grievances have proven futile, a notice of indefinite nationwide strike is served as in Section 159 of Act,651(2003). Our position is that all Mortuary Workers in Ghana shall lay down their tools starting on Wednesday, 29th November 2023, until all matters already in your domain are resolved,” the statement read.
Speaking in an interview on TV3, Hon. Adams made reference to the current condition of vulnerable public workers including mortuary workers.
“We have to be worried, and not just mortuary workers. You see, these were people who were promised (better life conditions) in 2020, they negotiated, came to some agreement in 2020 an election year, for an implementation in 2021.”
“Even the physically challenged who worked at toll booths recently had to demonstrate. The mortuary people don’t want to become part of the work they do just because government is failing to do what is right.”
He further appealed to government to cut down cost expenditure and prioritize the negotiated terms with the mortuary workers.
” I want to use this medium to talk to government, that we could cut cost, look in parliament we did it, on this post budget fee, we decided that we will not step out we will do it in parliament and make some savings, those savings can go into other critical areas that will support other parliamentary work. Government should be aiming to do same, reducing cost, saving some money to deal with some of these situations.”
Below is the statement from the MOWAG.
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Story by: Vannessa Nyasi Mensah | univers.ug.edu.gh
