July deadline for implementation of SSSS, not negotiable
Koforidua, April 14, GNA - Mr George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), has said that the July deadline for the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure for public service workers is non- negotiable.
He said FWSC was following the road map that it agreed with its stakeholders to ensure that public service workers benefited from the new salary structure by July this year, as planned.
Mr. Smith-Graham was addressing a durbar of public service workers and civil servants in Koforidua on Tuesday.
He said that workers groups that complained that their jobs were not properly evaluated were being invited to participate in the re-evaluation of their job within the week.
Mr. Smith-Graham said the Commission was also breaking from its regional tours to negotiate for the base payment and the relativity ratio, to enable it to calculate the figures that could go with the pay structure that it had designed under the Single Spine Pay policy.
He warned that any reckless management of the Single Spine Pay Structure in the face of the increasing world price of petrol could destroy the national economy.
Mr. Smith-Graham explained that, if a three per cent relativity ratio is used to calculate the public sector salary and the current minimum pay is used as the base salary, the total public service salary would increase to 9.1 billion Ghana Cedis which is far above the annual income of the country.
He said the Commission would ensure that civil servants were brought to the negotiating table to iron out any differences concerning the Single Spine Salary structure.
Mr. Smith-Graham said that because of the across the board negotiation, civil servants would have an increase in their salary when place on the Single Spine Salary structure.
Mr Smith-Graham explained that, under the current dispensation, organized labour could legally negotiate with salary conditions only with the FWSC who would invite their management to participate.
GNA