CEO advises workers to ignore false documents in circulation

Bolgatanga, Aug 25, GNA - Mr George Smith-Graham, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, has appealed to public sector workers to ignore false salary structures purported to be the Single Spine Salary Structure being circulated especially in the civil service.

He told a workers' forum at Bolgatanga on Tuesday that the document was to misinform workers and create the impression that the SSPP was inferior to some existing salary structures.

Mr Smith-Graham said the Commission would release the new Pay Salary Structure after it had completed its work and assured all public workers that not a single worker out of the 512,000 public sector workers to be covered under the new SSPP would be disadvantaged.

He appealed to workers to exercise patience whilst the Commission completed the implementation processes of the SSPP.

Mr Smith-Graham informed the workers that discussion between the Commission and a Civil Servants Association had not broken down.

He said arrangements were far advanced to conduct the re-evaluation of jobs in the Civil Service in collaboration with the Management Service Division of the Civil Service.

"Other concerns raised by CLOGSAG with regards to separate negotiations are therefore before the National Labour Commission and therefore would await the ruling of the National Labour Commission," he said.

He said in view of the commitment of the Commission to ensure a fair and transparent pay policy and also in addressing issues and concerns raised by stakeholders on the new pay policy, the civil service would be among the last batch of the public service to be migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure in October.

Mr Smith-Graham assured the public service employees that the arrears for three months covering January to March on the 10 per cent across board salary increase are expected this month whilst the remainder of the arrears covering April to June 2010 would be paid next month.

Mr John Yaw Amankwah, Director for Pay Policy Analysis and Research of the Commission, said workers' benefits and allowances would be harmonized under the SSPP.

Mr. Amankwah said negotiations for allowances, benefits and conditions of service would be done by the Commission on behalf of the government in consultation with representatives of each of the nine Service Classifications identified under the new pay policy.