Veep advises workers: don't opt out of single spine salary

Vice-President John Dramani Mahama

Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has asked public sector workers who have threatened to opt out of the single spine salary structure (SSSS) to rescind their decision.

He said such a decision would not "augur well for an equitable and fair salary administration in the public sector".

His call was in apparent reference to some public sector workers, including doctors, who have indicated that they will not subscribe to the new pay policy unless the relativity ratios in it are corrected.

Mr Mahama was opening a two-day stakeholders' consultative forum on the new policy in Accra.

It was attended by labour experts, representatives of organised labour and other unions and associations and provides the opportunity for participants to discuss outstanding issues on the SSSS which were not captured in the final report.

The areas of contention are the determination of the base pay, the relativity ratios, standardisation of allowances and other conditions of service.

Mr Mahama said the government was aware that "there are agitation, anxieties and threats from sections of public sector workers" to opt out of the SSSS.

He noted that the absence of an equitable and fair salary administration in the public sector had resulted in spates of industrial unrest and their consequent negative effect on productivity.

Therefore, he said, if there were dissenting views, the forum provided the platform for such to be discussed in a dispassionate manner and consensus arrived at.

Mr Mahama urged the participants to discuss the issues dispassionately, since their decision would have implications on the way forward for public sector pay reform.

The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, said the government would strengthen social dialogue and co-operation for purposes of decent work in the domain of employment, social protection and economic stability.

He said the coming out of a final report on the SSSS would "bring peace on the industrial landscape".

The Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, reiterated the belief of the union that when fully implemented, the new salary structure would eliminate inequities in public sector reward system and ensure that public sector workers were paid on the basis of 'equal pay for equal work value'.

He said the TUC expected the forum to come out with a road map on the implementation of the new salary structure.

The reform process of the salaries of public sector workers saw the evaluation of all public sector jobs and the designing of a grading structure.

An orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Frederick Kwarteng, told the Daily Graphic that the salary relativity among doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical assistants had been dis-torted in the SSSS.

He said it was wrong for medical assistants to be put on the same scale as doctors and asked the government to maintain the relativity in the current health service salary structure.