Single Spine Pay Policy to enhance productivity in Public Service

Sunyani, April 10, GNA - The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), has indicated that the ultimate goal of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP)is to ensure equity, fairness and transparency in public service salary administration and enhance performance and productivity.

Mr. John Yaw Amankrah, Director of Pay Policy, Analysis and Research of FWSC) made this known in Sunyani on Friday at a public forum organised for workers, the media and the general public to create awareness on the SSPP.

He said one of the key elements of the new pay policy, which took effect in January 2010, was to attract and retain qualified personnel in the public service.

Mr. Amankrah observed that there are some public sector employees who by the nature of their jobs have to work in some deprived and undeserved areas in the country and therefore need to be compensated for working in those localities.

"These categories of employees need to be compensated through special remuneration schemes, including market premiums and inducements to attract, retain and deploy them to places where their skills are needed," he said.

Market premium is an amount paid to attract particular skills which is above the regular pay range for jobs of same value and is usually paid for skills that are generally in short supply in the entire economy and for which the public sector would have to compete with the private sector, he explained.

Mr. Amankrah emphasised that there are jobs in the public service that require an enhanced pay to attract and retain them.

He said regular labour market and inducement surveys are to be conducted by the FWSC, which is the lead agency mandated to implement the new pay policy to guide the process.

Mr. George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive officer of the Commission, noted that the SSPP was adopted by government because of its superior benefits over previous pay systems, including ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in managing the wage bill, the removal of disparities in public services salaries with the ultimate goal of linking reward of public servants to higher level performance and productivity.

The other high level consideration of government in accepting the SSPP, Mr. Smith-Graham observed, is to eventually make public services pay competitive salaries for the attraction and retention of the right mix of skills, within a stable macro-economic environment.

"Perhaps, in the not too distant future, the public service will be the employer of choice for talented and skilled Ghanaian job seekers," he added.

He said the base pay and relatives of the new salary structure are yet to be discussed to facilitate the construction of a live and operational Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

Mr. Smith-Graham said no public servant would be made worse-off under the SSSS.

He entreated the Public Service and organised labour/associations to join in the sensitisation of their staff/members about the SSPP to ensure a well informed constituent.

Mr. Smith-Graham and his team paid a courtesy call on the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Eric Opoku and Acting Regional Co-ordinating Director, Mr. Felix B. Chaahaah, where they briefed them about the SSPP.

Mr. Opoku said the visit of the Commission to the region was timely and would deepen workers understanding of the new policy.

The team also met regional heads of department and organised labour/associations.

GNA