If the government does not address the long-standing complaints of its members, the Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana (MOWAG) has threatened to go on strike nationwide in November.
Better pay, a safer workplace, and the provision of necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) are among the critical reforms in working conditions that the group, which represents the interests of mortuary workers nationwide, is demanding.
The group claims that since 2019, these problems have continued, and authorities have done little to address them.
In a Citi News interview, Richard Kofi Jordan, the general secretary of MOWAG, conveyed the organization’s dissatisfaction with how the government has been responding to their demands.
In order to obstruct negotiations and avoid addressing the workers’ primary concerns, he accused the government of purposefully slowing down the process by asking the association for irrelevant data.
Jordan clarified that the mortuary employees continue to work in appalling conditions that endanger their health and safety, even after multiple attempts over the previous few years to engage the administration on these concerns.
He stressed that MOWAG members had no option but to think about using industrial action as a way to force the government to take their requests seriously because of the government’s lack of responsiveness.
“We cannot strike in the middle of the month. So we are planning towards another week. It could be the end of this month, it could be the first week of next month [November], whichever it is, we will communicate the same to the public and then you understand.
“As I speak to you, the government has demanded certain data from us and we feel that it is a way to delay the process. They demanded certain data from us, which we are providing. But that is not enough for us to say that we are not going to embark on our strike. We will surely strike if what we are asking for is not met within this month.”
Source: Citinewsroom