Public Servants to enjoy enhanced salary

Accra, Nov. 21, GNA - Come January 2007, all Government workers will see an upward adjustment in their pay compared to the wages and salaries levels that pertained in 2006, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Public Sector Reform, announced on Tuesday.

Briefing the press on the new salary reforms, Dr Nduom said the Government was undertaking a comprehensive adjustment to make sure that all of its workers were treated equally and at the same time. Government has projected A213.2 trillion cedis for the payment of wages and related expenditure, representing 66 per cent of total discretionary expenditure for 2007.

Dr Nduom said the allocation given in the Budget to wages was arrived at taking into account submissions made by various stakeholders to address the inequalities, adding that negotiations were still being held with others.

"We are doing this to allow the changes envisaged in wage and salary administration time to take effect. We are also doing this to enable us to have ample time to engage in dialogue with the labour unions and other stakeholders over the new Comprehensive Wage and Salary Structure and System," he said.

Dr Nduom said several efforts in the past for a systematic, effective and sustainable National Incomes Policy in Ghana had failed because of ad hoc decisions on pay adjustments resulting in different salary structures within the Public Services.

"In some cases, one set of jobs on a particular grade are compensated differently from others even though no critical skills consideration was needed, raising issues of equity," he said. "Thus there has been deep-seated dissatisfaction among Public Servants about perceived and real inequities in the remuneration of people often with the same qualification and job demands, but receiving very different remuneration packages, depending on the institution where they are employed," Dr Nduom said.

"It is in this direction that the Government is out-dooring a comprehensive and integrated national framework for administering wages and incomes in the public service to ensure that incomes in the national economy are fairly distributed across socio-economic groups, gender and regions and that all categories of workers receive fair reward for their labour."

Dr Nduom said the Government would take the necessary steps to give legal backing and the necessary technical resources to the Fair Wages Commission, the body to be set up to administer wages across the Public Sector.

The Commission would undertake job evaluation, analyse existing data and job content reviews along with market surveys and other research needed to determine the relative worth of all Public Sector positions.

Consequently, a single pay spine would be implemented to cover all positions in the Public Sector making it easier to perform job evaluations and determine the relative worth of every Public sector position.

The result of the work of the Fair Wages Commission would take effect from the 2008 Budget.

A technical team had also been set up to do job evaluation, he said, adding that any future salary increments would be based solely on the type of job being performed by Public Servants.

There are also plans to install time systems at the entrance of every Ministry to check those who come late and absentees. Dr Nduom explained that the system would be linked to the Controller and Accountant General so that any Public Servant who was absent from office would lose his salary for the number of days spent away from the office.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance, said the Government was determined to do its homework and to tackle the wage problem head-on.