10% base pay increase not sufficient - TUC

General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Kofi Asamoah has said the 10 percent increment in base pay of Public Sector Workers as insufficient.

“This is what we have arrived at after some months of negotiations not because we are happy with it but that is what government can afford to offer as at now,” he said.

The 2013 Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) daily base pay for Public Sector Workers has been increased from GH¢4.84p to GH¢5.32, representing a 10 per cent increase over the 2012 Base Pay.

The effective date of implementation is January 1, 2013, according to a communiqué signed by George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive of Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, on behalf of the Government and Mr. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), on behalf of organized labour.

Asamoah told CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in a telephone interview that “What government has given us is not what we were looking for but there were so many factors that influenced that decision”.

He said they agreed to the 10 percent increment because of government’s complaints that there was no money in its coffers to meet their demand. Asamoah said, “We will accept and work with what government has given to us like that”.

The new pay levels would take effect from September 2013 and the arrears would be later discussed at a Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee (PSJSNC) meeting.

The PSJSNC, comprising the Government, represented by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, on one hand and Organized Labour on the other, on August 26, 2013 concluded negotiations and agreed on a new Base Pay on the SSSS for 2013.