Single Spine: Fair Wages to evaluate public sector workers

Public workers on the Single Spine Salary Structure will soon be asked to justify their entitlement to their improved salaries through a job evaluation process by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.

The upcoming process is the second phase of the evaluation of the new pay policy. It is expected to come off immediately after the government issues a white paper on it.

The introduction of the Single Spine Salary structure has seen the public sector Wage Bill increase from 2.4 billion to nearly 7 billion Ghana cedis.

Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, George Smith-Graham, in an interview with XYZ News said the implementation of the second phase of the salary structure will silence critics including IMANI Ghana who have described the new pay policy as an unsustainable bonanza.

He said “nobody should think that this is a policy that is, as IMANI said, a bonanza that is just going to dash money to people. It’s not so. At least now what is clear is that government has ended the argument of chicken and egg.”

He said people need to be paid based on the value of their job and the commission is going to ensure that workers earn what they are paid through the evaluation process.

Mr. Smith-Graham admits that though the Single Spine Pay Policy is expensive, it is meant to retain highly skilled professionals in the Public sector.