By Assan Bah
Modou Mbye, the Chairperson of the Medical Research Council Unit the Gambia (MRCG) Workers’ Union has on Tuesday confirmed the suspension of the union’s sit-down strike.
He said the union embarked on a sit-down strike on 16th and 17th amid the management’s reluctance to fulfil some of the union’s demands some of which were from two years ago.
Mbye said, the suspension of the strike came after the intervention of the Minister of Health, saying, “Through his intervention as our state minister, we decided to suspend the strike with a pending negotiation with the management. If things do not go the way we hope, we are going back to the drawing board.”
Narrating the genesis behind the strike he said, the union has been in ‘this dilemma’ with the management for years without a solution.
“This strike was even supposed to be in May last year, but we had a negotiation with the management and the board where agreements were made.
According to him, a joint communique of their agreements was tendered to the Department of Labour upon the completion of their negotiation last year. He narrated that the Department of Labour did acknowledge their demands as binding and should be implemented.
Mbye said after having relentlessly reminded and advocated for actions on their remaining demands, in November 2023 they wrote to the Department of Labour on several occasions in the same year informing them of the management’s failure to fulfil some of the agreed demands, but they did not have any response from them.
“In January this year, I with my executive visited the labour department to find out why none of our enquiries were responded, but the response we got from the Commissioner of Labour was they were on their end of year activities and could not contact the management.
He said after two or three months without hearing from neither the Labour Department nor the Management, the union decided to reignite its sit-down strike saying that none of the stakeholders showed willingness to address their needs.
“Management however, went on to file an injunction at the high court to bar us from entering the premises and threatened to deduct staff salaries if we go ahead with the strike.
We therefore, advised all our members to respect the court rulings and abide by the law.
Mbye said they had in the process had several meetings with both the Ministry of Trade, and Health to resolve the matter and there were assurances that it would be resolved, but to no avail.
“The matter then proceeded to the court which was subsequently referred to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADRS) for mediation, but the management repeatedly informed the mediator that they were only interested for us not entering the premises.
“With the court injunction banning us from entering the premises, we decided to sit at home until our demands are met,” he said.
He however, said they are open to negotiation and dialogue but said the management is yet to reach out to them for any.
Meanwhile, Foroyaa visited the MRCG premises on Tuesday to have the reaction of management on the matter but was advised to write an official request.
The union’s demands centre around pay, working conditions, career development, promotion, equity and so on.
