Alhaji Mohamed Mumuni, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, says the implementation of the Price Waterhouse salary report has made the majority of workers better off than before despite initial setbacks.
Alhaji Mumuni said the implementation has not only enhanced the income levels of workers but also improved the efficiency rate of payment from 90 per cent to 95 per cent after the initial anomalies were rectified.
He said data compiled by the Controller and Accountant-General's Department indicated that in July, this year, 60 per cent of workers on its pay roll received salary increases ranging from 20 per cent to 50 per cent while 28 per cent of them got varying pay rise of up to 20 per cent.
Those who did not receive any increases represented just about 11 per cent of the 300,000 workers on the Controller's payroll. Alhaji Mumuni said the initial problems identified with the new salary structure in June were basically technical errors, which bordered on data entry and computation.
These anomalies, he said, were not unexpected considering the large number of workers on the Integrated Personnel and Pay Data payroll. However, he said, the situation was of grave concern to government hence its directive to the Controller to improve upon its efficiency of payment.
He said he was surprised because at various times some groups such as the Ghana Bar Association, Catholic Bishops Conference, leaders of the opposition and several others issued statements calling on government to ensure the immediate implementation of the policy. "Such was the pressure that there was not ample time to test-run the pay-roll and remove all the bugs prior to full implementation," he said. "Regrettably today, some of the same political party leaders have turned round to question the implementation of the policy," he added.
Alhaji Mumuni concluded by saying that the government's commitment arises from its determination that collective bargaining, as a fundamental economic right of the Ghanaian worker under the Constitution, must be defended as stipulated by the International Labour Organization Convention.
