Trapartite Committee makes progress on minimum wage

The Minister of Employment and Manpower Development, Mr Stephen Kwao Amoanor, has sad the National Tripartite Committee (NTC) is making progress in deliberations on the minimum wage.

He said the partners were currently discussing some reports by a technical committee of the NTC which presented several scenarios based on which a fruitful conclusion could be reached.

The NTC comprises the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the government.

He said the government was committed to a minimum wage that would not disturb the economic plans and projections of the country or impact negatively on the new integrated public sector wage administration structure the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

In an interview with the daily Guide, Mr. Amoanor said after the announcement of the minimum wage, all the partners would look again at the SSSS to ensure that all concerns were addressed.

He assured doctors who had recently been calling attention of the distortions in the SSSS, that, in collaboration with all stakeholders, all concerns would be addressed to make the structure more acceptable to all.

Meanwhile the GEA has confirmed that considerable progress is being made on the determination of a minimum wage.

The Executive Director of the GEA, Mr Alex Frimpong said, for employers, one key issue in the determination of the minimum wage was its impact on the cost of doing business in the country.

He said unsustainable minimum wage increments could send wrong signals to investors about the competitiveness of doing business in the country.

He said employers were also committed to a minimum wage that would ensure worker motivation and human resource development.

He explained that although productivity, which had been a key issue for employers for long in the determination of the minimum wage, would not feature prominently in deliberations this year, the NTC had tasked the Management Development and Productivity Institute to work out productivity indicators for various sectors of the economy which would then form the basis for future deliberations.