Business News of Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Source: GNA

Technical committee to meet on Single Spine Salary Structure

Accra, April 14, GNA - The technical committee working on the single spine salary structure will on Thursday begin a series of meetings to prepare a final report for the consideration of cabinet, the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, the Minister said government had not abandoned the implementation of the salary structure and was determined to promote a policy that offered Ghanaians a living wage.

He could, however, not be drawn into any timeframe for the commencement of the pay policy. Earlier, there were reports that the implementation of the salary structure was stalled because of a missing document. Mr Amoanor Kwao said all documents had been found paving the way for a careful study by government of the recommendations since some of the documents were found to be inconclusive. He said it was important and appropriate to build consensus and resolve any differences before the start of implementation to avoid chaos.

There are also plans to bring the consultants who worked on the document to brief key sector ministers as well as reconstitute the Fair Wages Commission, which input is vital for the success of the pay policy.

The New Patriotic Party government launched the pay reform in 2006 to ensure a sustainable public sector pay policy to improve morale and productivity of public servants but could not implement it. It is also aimed at establishing equity in public sector pay policy and administration through the adoption of a single salary structure, which would place all public servants on one vertical structure.