The Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Mr George Smith-Graham, has commended social partners for their commitment towards the conclusion of negotiations on salary increases for public sector workers ahead of the 2016 budget.
For the first time in the country’s salary administration, negotiations on salary increases have been completed before the reading of the budget.
Mr Smith-Graham said the conclusion of the negotiations on salary increases on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) before the 2016 budget could not have be achieved, but for the commitment of social partners to decisions agreed to in the course of implementing the pay structure.
He said the commitment that had been shown so far had resulted in the attainment of some of the goals for which the policy was instituted.
Achievement
In an interview, Mr Smith-Graham said one such goal was predictability in salary administration to enable the government to plan ahead in relation to its fiscal policy, and that had been achieved.
He said since the implementation of the SSSS started in 2010, it had been the desire of partners to conclude negotiations on salary increases ahead of budget presentation for the estimates to be incorporated but that had been elusive.
Negotiations for the base pay for 2014 were concluded in January 2015, after the budget of the year had been prepared and read in November 2014.
“This is all thanks to the consensus we started building in Ho, where we had the national forum on the SSPP and came out with the key decisions which were implemented. All the pay reforms ongoing are based on the Ho consensus,” he said.
A second national forum was held in Takoradi in May, 2015 to re-enforce the decisions that were taken in Ho.
He said the commitment by partners to decisions reached had been helpful in overcoming some implementation challenges.
Salaries and allowances
Mr Smith-Graham also commended labour unions and the government for the consensus reached during the negotiations for increases, the base pay of the SSSS for 2016.
On October 2, 2015, the Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee (PSJSNC), announced a 10 per cent increase in the base salary of the SSSS to take effect from January 1, 2016.
“The negotiations were tough,” Mr Smith-Graham said.
“However, unions considered the fact that category two and three allowances were being negotiated for the first time in addition to salary increments on the SSSS. They realised that it would be tough on the government to accede to their demanded increase in salaries and also negotiated allowances; so all parties made concessions and reached an agreement,” he added.
Category two allowances relate to special conditions arising from time-to-time in relation to one’s job and, while category three allowances are those relating to the welfare of staff.
Next steps For the next steps, after all public sector workers have been migrated onto the SSSS and allowances have been negotiated and decided, the chief executive said partners could now concentrate on how to make the SSSS a viable structure by linking pay to productivity.
Mr Smith-Graham said a critical component of the phase of linking productivity to pay would be the monitoring of all government departments and agencies to ensure that all remained within the unitary structure of the SSSS.
Source: Graphic