‘Freeze annual pay increases’

George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive of the Fair Wages & Salaries Commission (FWSC), has called on stakeholders to put a freeze on the annual pay increases for public sector workers to curtail the country’s soaring wage bill.

He said the pay increases negotiated annually by workers had increased the wage bill. “Even though we have implemented the Single Spine, anytime workers are migrated onto it, they have to enjoy increases. In addition to those, we also do the annual increases and we think such reasons account for the ballooning wage bill.”

Mr. Graham disclosed this during a presentation on the challenges bedeviling the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) at the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) implementation review forum in Ho.

Officials of organized labour and other stakeholders were expected to arrive at a consensus on a possible freeze on annual pay increases. “I think that it should be possible for us all to sit down and as social partners to discuss even if it is possible to freeze or slash salaries as prescribed by Article 71 so that we will be able to altogether manage the wage bill,” he suggested.

The FWSC boss also attributed the high wage bill to salary disparities. The Chief Executive of FWSC called for the streamlining of public sector recruitment and thorough audit of the public sector payroll to remove ‘ghost names,’ as well as block leakages to sustain the policy.

Difficulties

Mr. Smith-Graham stated that the Commission was unable to forestall the numerous labour agitations that affected the implementation of SSPP because of resource constraints. He also mentioned that the Commission failed to carry out adequate public education.

He complained about the lack of proper offices for the Commission as well as limited staff, which hindered the proper functioning of the Commission. “We are very lean on the ground. This is a commission that do not have offices even critical middle level employees that we need, we don’t have.”

Mr. Graham said that “since its establishment Government has not given us any vehicle to work with. Most of the support comes from donor partners. This needs to be looked at.” He bemoaned the politicization of the SSPP and stated that the ‘pulling of strings’ behind the scenes by politicians was another major challenge facing the Commission.

“When there is an agitation and we are trying to resolve it, you see the politicians going behind and giving assurances to members of some of the labour unions. Also, decisions taken at the Labour Commission are sometimes influenced by ministers. These, I think, we should all be careful about,” Mr. Graham stated.