The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has disclosed to Citi Business News plans to halt the yearly review of the base salary of public sector workers on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The CEO of the Commission, Dr. Edward Kwapong, said the decision should give value for money and link productivity with pay.
Being in existence for about eight years now, the public sector base pay of the Single Spine has been increased by between 10 and 20 percent.
Dr. Edward Kwapong also explains that a change in the yearly review of the public sector base salary, should help reduce government’s rising expenditure on public sector remuneration.
“…Because of the rate of inflation, people say the real income has eroded. So there is the need to restore us back to the real wage we were making at the beginning of the year. The increase which will keep workers where they were before the end of the year is informed by figures from the Ghana Statistical Service,” he said.
“Going forward, we perhaps need a national dialogue to determine that we would not go for the yearly increments, but rather work harder to improve productivity for the gains to inform salary increases that will be granted by Government.”
The Single Spine, which began in 2010, saw the base pay of GH¢3.42 increase to GH¢4.10 in 2011.
The 2011 figure of GH¢4.10 increased to GH¢4.48 in 2012.
In 2013, the base pay saw a significant growth from the 2012 figure to GH¢ 5.32. 2014, 2015, 2016 all saw significant increases.
The 11 per cent increase in the base pay of the 2017 figure of GH¢7.45, increases the 2018 base pay to GH¢8.27.
Dr. Edward Kwapong spoke at the launch of a Ghana Banking Human Resource Survey by ACREATY Ghana.
The Survey seeks to collate objective views about the banking sector for the purposes of planning and strategy.
The Regional Managing Partner of ACREATY Ghana, Elsie Appau, explains that the exercise should improve standards in the banking industry.
“If you don’t know where you are, how would you know where you want to be? Based on the lack of information in the banking sector, it’s difficult to know about the systems and structures of banks in the system. As a human capital company, we decided it is not enough to train and share the CVs of people who patronize our service. Rather, we believe it’s important to understand the opinions of the employees and their contribution to their banks. Based on that understanding, we decided to help the banks who do not have the full capacity to conduct the surveys, which will end up informing their planning purposes.”
The evidence based data survey, which is expected to focus on all 35 banks in the country, will prioritize the protection of data for participating banks, and will be a trusted source of information on employee performance, employee perception about a number of banking related topics like employee welfare and remuneration among others.
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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana