Disparities in wages to make labour restless

Ho, Jan. 26, GNA-The disparities in public sector salaries created by the hike in health sector workers' wages last year would continue to make the labour front restless for sometime. Mr Gordon Bodza, Volta Regional Industrial Relations Officer (IRO) of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) said this on Friday in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Ho. He said the dilemma of government was to either slash salaries of health sector workers or raise take-home pays of others in the public sector to the levels of the health sector. Mr. Bodza said since labour would not condescend to conditions lower than the existing one at any negotiations other public sector workers were left with no option but to scramble for parity from now on. He said the review of health sector wages last year amounted to consolidating their incomes twice, first under the Price Waterhouse Reform and again when the Additional Duty Hour Allowance (ADHA) was merged into their salaries. Mr Bodza said the position of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) as known to government was for the avoidance of "discriminatory and selective polices in dealing with the complex salary problems". He said the implementation of government's public sector salaries reform did not mean Collective Agreements with salary components awaiting signatures were redundant. Mr Bodza said where salaries under the "Single Spine" policy of government were lower that the negotiated ones, the various labour unions would have to go back to the negotiating table to press for the acceptance of the negotiated figures. He said the agreements would have to be signed anyway because it contained other conditions of service apart from salaries. Mr Bodza said salaries of Ghanaian public sector workers was one of the lowest in he sub region and needed to be reviewed to raise morale and productivity. He said the problem in the public sector was not about numbers but the effective use of those in employment. Mr Bodza said there were too many people crammed up in certain areas and towns while other areas cried for more hands.