Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has asked the National Tripartite Committee to review the Single Spine Pay Policy and submit a report on it in three months.
The Minister made the request when he inaugurated a Nine-Member Technical Committee to review the policy and make recommendations for consideration by the Government.
A Technical Sub-Committee of the NTC was also inaugurated by the Minister to submit proposals for the determination of the 2023 National Daily Minimum Wage.
The Minister charged the Committee to assess the extent to, which the objectives of the policy had been achieved.
They are also to identify the key challenges in the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy, including linking performance to pay, market premium, and administration of salary differentials in the public sector.
The Committee was also tasked to make proposals on the policy, estimate its cost implications, advise the government on the implementation of the recommendations and consider any other matter consequential to the subject.
The review will, among others, consider productivity, comparative salary standards in the private sector, and international salary standards as a guide to ensure uniformity in public sector pay.
The review of the more than a decade-old policy has been occasioned by labour unrest, mostly from health and educational sector workers over pay disparities in the public service.
Chaired by Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu of the Ministry of Finance, the Committee has the Chief Executive Officer of Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Benjamin Arthur, Gloria Bortele Noi, and Kingsley Laar as members. Mr. Edward AsuoAfram from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is the Chairman of the Sub-Committee.
He thanked the Minister for the confidence reposed in them and gave the assurance that they would deliver an acceptable report.
The Government started implementing the pay policy in 2010 to regulate the payment of public service workers’ salaries, and guarantee better public sector pay.
However, workers have for several months been calling for a review of the policy indicating it had not served its purpose as there are still disparities in the salaries of public sector workers.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, in 2018 admitted the need for equity in the Public Sector Salary Structure and hinted at a review of the SSPP to address challenges encountered in its implementation.
