Efforts in place to wean off Subvented Agencies

Nii Armah Ashietey, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, had announced that a Post-Forum Implementation Committee was formed to concretize the decisions arrived at during the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) Forum at Ho in August this year.

He said major work was being done on weaning off some subvented agencies off government subvention, blocking of leakages in public pay administration and the implementation of market premium. The Minister announced this at the meet-the-press series organised in Accra to highlight achievements and challenges of the Ministry.

Nii Ashietey stated stakeholders at the Ho Forum agreed to strategies to resolve the fiscal imbalance created by increasing public service wage bill and collectively agreed on key modalities that underpin sustainable implementation of the SSPP.

He said some of the key decisions arrived at included the weaning off of some Subvented Agencies, Linking pay to work and productivity, performance appraisal and the reduction in salary by the President, Vice president, Ministers of State and government appointees.

He said the occurrences on the labour front this year had been quite disconcerting and turbulent demanding much focus and attention on the critical issues while attempting to elucidate issues pertaining to SSPP which has been at the centre of most of the labour agitations.

Nii Ashietey stated that despite these post-migration problems associated with the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) had chalked a lot of successes by migrating 126 institutions onto the SSPP.

“There were however teething problems resulting in many labour agitations pertaining to interim market premium and other post-migration challenges. These labour agitations were however managed successfully leading to quite serene labour environment at the moment,” he said

The Minister said it must be emphasized that the SSPP was implemented by the government in good faith and in recognition of the need for equity and fairness in wage administration. He said notwithstanding these difficulties the Ministry continues to strategize to enhance industrial harmony and enabling environment for businesses to thrive in Ghana and facilitating job creation in the economy.