Kumasi, April 7, GNA - The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has defended the Single Spine Pay Policy saying; it holds good prospects for the Ghanaian public service worker and should be supported. Mr George Smith-Graham, the Chief Executive of the Commission, said it would address inequalities in the salaries of the workers. The policy, to be implemented in July, this year, would help to make public services pay competitive for the attraction and retention of highly-skilled labour force.

Mr Smith-Graham was speaking at a public forum on the new pay policy at the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi. "Equity Pay for Work of Equal Value", was the theme. The new pay policy is a unified salary structure that places all public sector employees on one vertical structure, making sure that, jobs within the same job value range are paid within the same pay range. It would replace all existing salary structures in the public service including the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS). The public service currently has over 90 different salary structures as well as over 65 different types of allowances which Mr Smith-Graham described as cumbersome and difficult for government to effectively manage the public sector wage bill.

He said the Commission was in dialogue with key stakeholders to agree on modalities for its effective implementation and sustainability. Mr John Amankrah, the Commission's Director of Pay Policy, Analysis and Research, said placements on the Single Spine Salary Structure would be based on a 25-Level Grade Structure constructed from a job evaluation exercise on 1,806 benchmark jobs selected from 92 institutions throughout the country. 7 April 10