FWSC pledges to resolve issues with CLOSAG

Wa, Aug. 28, GNA - Mr George Smith-Graham Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), has assured workers that the Commission and its stakeholders would resolve all issues and concerns of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSAG) before moving them onto the Single Spine.

He reiterated that the issue about CLOSAC request to negotiate separately was before the National Labour Commission and they were waiting for a ruling on the matter.

"These are some of the factors that informed the roll-out plan for migration unto the Single Spine for which the Civil Service is among the last batch of public service employees to be placed on the Single spine Structure", Mr Smith-Graham said.

He was addressing a well attended workers forum on the new pay policy at Wa.

The forum was the last in a series of a one-week sensitization drive embarked upon in the Northern, Upper East and West regions by the Chief Executive Officer and his technical directors.

They briefed public sector employees on the latest development with regard to the implementation of the new comprehensive pay policy that had been designed for public sector workers.

Mr Smith-Graham assured public sector workers that the single spine pay policy was not being implemented for only year 2010 emphasizing that the policy was not an event but a process that started from January this year.

He said the new pay policy is of special significance to employees in the Northern sector of the country as one of its key elements sought to pay special inducement allowance to public sector employees, who accepted posting to deprived areas for which most of them working in the North were likely to benefit.

He expressed concern about misinformation on the policy and assured workers that "no worker will have his or her salary reduced even by a pesewa in the pay reform process.

"Government will not introduce a pay policy that will disadvantage public sector workers", he added.

He said the Commission was compiling the necessary data in order to begin the process for the harmonization and standardization of all category two and three allowances.

He, therefore, appealed to management of public sector institutions as well as unions and associations to exercise restraint and cooperate with the Commission since negotiations for these allowances and other conditions of service would soon begin.

Mr John Yaw Amankrah, Director of Pay Policy, Analysis and Research at the Commission, said the placement on the single spine grading structure was based on the results of job analysis and evaluation exercise as the basis for establishing equity as enshrined in Article 24 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.

The job evaluation exercise, he stated, provided an opportunity for the Police Service, who was among the lowest paid in the country.

He advised public sector employees, who were making mathematical comparisons to leave the police alone and rather concentrate on the ongoing migration and mapping exercise.

Mr Amankrah explained that the Commission decided to implement the SSSS within the police first because they were the first public sector institution to complete the migration of their jobs into the single spine grading structure.