Workers to receive arrears by August ending

Tamale, Aug. 23, GNA - The Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages Commission, Mr George Smith-Graham, had assured public service employees, that arrears for January, February and March 2010, would be paid them at the end of August, while the remaining covering April to June would be paid next month.

He said the arrears follow the 10 per cent salary increase across board, as part of the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), which had already been affected.

Mr Smith-Graham was addressing public sector workers in Tamale on Monday on the implementation of the SSSS, which had already taken effect and the migration of salary data unto the single spine pay.

It is part of a one week tour of the three Northern Regions, on a sensitization drive, to brief public service workers on the latest development of the new comprehensive pay.

Mr Smith-Graham said the commission had already concluded negotiations with Organised Labour and Associations on the base pay and pay point relativity and re-evaluation of some 210 jobs, adding that, a Review Committee had been established for which the commission was awaiting its report.

He told the workers that all technical issues relating to the implementation of the new pay policy will be resolved in collaboration with stakeholders, saying that, other issues raised by CLOGSAG, with regard to separate negotiations, is before the National Labour Commission.

He also pointed out that the commission had taken note of some salary structures being circulated, especially within the civil service, and advised public service workers to ignore that, since it is not the official structure of the commission.

Mr Smith-Graham assured the workers that the commission would continue to work with transparency and integrity in a collective collaboration with social partners to implement the SSSS in a sustainable manner, adding that, "the SSSS is the best you can find anywhere".

Mr John Yaw Amankwa, the Director for Pay Policy and Analysis for the Commission said the implementation of the SSSS started from the Ghana Police Service because they were the first public sector institution to complete the job migration unto the new Single Spine Grading Structure.

He explained that placement on the Single Spine Grade Structure, is based on the results of a job evaluation exercise that collected information from 5,064 job holders from 1,827 benchmarks in 92 public service institutions.

Mr Amankwa said following the successful implementation of the police, there had been a remarkable interest for placement on the single spine.