Public Servants to enjoy
enhanced salary from January 2007
Accra, Nov. 21, GNA -
Come January 2007, all Government workers will see
an upward adjustment in their pay compared to the
wages and salaries levels that pertained in 2006, Dr
Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Public Sector Reform,
announced on Tuesday.
Briefing the press on the new salary reforms, Dr
Nduom said the Government was undertaking a
comprehensive adjustment to make sure that all of
its workers were treated equally and at the same
time.
Government has projected ¢13.2 trillion cedis for
the payment of wages and related expenditure,
representing 66 per cent of total discretionary
expenditure for 2007.
Dr Nduom said the
allocation given in the Budget to wages was arrived
at taking into account submissions made by various
stakeholders to address the inequalities, adding
that negotiations were still being held with others.
"We are doing this to allow the changes envisaged in
wage and salary administration time to take effect.
We are also doing this to enable us to have ample
time to engage in dialogue with the labour unions
and other stakeholders over the new Comprehensive
Wage and Salary Structure and System," he said.
Dr Nduom said several efforts in the past for a
systematic, effective and sustainable National
Incomes Policy in Ghana had failed because of ad hoc
decisions on pay adjustments resulting in different
salary structures within the Public Services.
"In some cases, one set of jobs on a particular
grade are compensated differently from others even
though no critical skills consideration was needed,
raising issues of equity," he said.
"Thus there has been deep-seated dissatisfaction
among Public Servants about perceived and real
inequities in the remuneration of people often with
the same qualification and job demands, but
receiving very different remuneration packages,
depending on the institution where they are
employed," Dr Nduom said.
“It is in this direction that the Government is out-dooring
a comprehensive and integrated national framework
for administering wages and incomes in the public
service to ensure that incomes in the national
economy are fairly distributed across socio-economic
groups, gender and regions and that all categories
of workers receive fair reward for their labour.”
Dr Nduom said the Government would take the
necessary steps to give legal backing and the
necessary technical resources to the Fair Wages
Commission, the body to be set up to administer
wages across the Public Sector.
The Commission would undertake job evaluation,
analyse existing data and job content reviews along
with market surveys and other research needed to
determine the relative worth of all Public Sector
positions.
Consequently, a single pay spine would be
implemented to cover all positions in the Public
Sector making it easier to perform job evaluations
and determine the relative worth of every Public
sector position.
The result of the work of the Fair Wages Commission
would take effect from the 2008 Budget.
A technical team had also been set up to do job evaluation, he said,
adding that any future salary increments would be
based solely on the type of job being performed by
Public Servants.
There are also plans to install time systems at the
entrance of every Ministry to check those who come
late and absentees.
Dr Nduom explained that the system would be linked
to the Controller and Accountant General so that any
Public Servant who was absent from office would lose
his salary for the number of days spent away from
the office.
Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance, said the
Government was determined to do its homework and to
tackle the wage problem head-on.
GNA
