Workers at the Laboratory Services Department (LSD) of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) are threatening to lay down their tools from Wednesday, May 19, 2021.

The sit-down strike is to protest what they say is the failure of management to reassign two medical officers who were posted to the department two years ago.

They have therefore given the hospital administration until the end of Tuesday, May 18, 2021, to address their concerns and have the physicians reassigned or have the industrial action triggered.

In a statement to the Chief Executive Officer of KATH, they noted that:

“If by the close of day Tuesday the 18th of May 2021, these two medical officers are still officially staff within LSD and the Haematology Unit to be precise, then the entire membership of the GALMS-KATH Chapter will begin a sit-down strike beginning Wednesday 19th May 2021.”

The group claimed that two medical officers, Lesley Osei and Eunice Agyemang Ahmed were posted to the LSD by the Medical Director as clinical haematologists.

Various protest letters, they say, were written to the KATH chapter of the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLMS) to register their displeasure to no avail.

Members of the association thus agreed to the strike at a joint emergency meeting with their leadership last Tuesday.

According to them, there are further series of actions to be taken to resist the move if the two officers remain at the LSD unit.

“Further, actions that have been outlined to press home our demand will be communicated to your office in due course of these two professionals remain as part of the staff of the Haematology Laboratory Unit within LSD.”

“It is our hope that you will act quickly on this letter in order to avoid any disruptions of the industrial peace and harmony within KATH and by extension Ashanti Region and Ghana as a whole. The National Association will not hesitate to call a national strike on this matter should the situation remains the same”, the statement concluded