Ghana’s organized labour wants the government to review the Single Spine Salary Structure

The General Secretary of ICU, Solomon Kotei said the review should make provision for non-discriminatory and fair employee compensation.

In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, Mr Kotei said the structure which was introduced about 10 years ago has outlived its purpose, and they will, therefore, make a case for its re-engineering at this year’s tripartite meeting.

“Before the inception of the Single Spine Salary Structure, it was clear that the level of salaries that were being paid were extremely low and that compelled the government to review the salary structure. Now it has run for a while now, and the levels are not seeing the much-needed increase, and many of them have run to the top of the scale. The re-engineering implies that we change the levels and the endpoint to endpoint of the salary structure.”

In a related development, the Sunyani Technical University Chapter of the Technical University Workers Association (TUWAG) has also called for a review of the pay structure to benefit low-income earners in the public service.

The chapter Chairman, Kofi Abrefa, said the basic monthly salaries of junior staff at the university under the government pay policy is insignificant hence the need for increment.

Mr Abrefa said the Trades Union Congress (TUC) must to push the 10 percent annual increment of public worker wages to at least 15 percent to benefit low-income earners.

The Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) was introduced by the Government and implemented in 2010, to regulate the payment of public service workers especially those under article 190 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

In 2018, President Akufo-Addo said at the May Day Celebration in Kumasi, said the government will review the single spine salary structure comparative to salary standards in the private sector, and international salary standards among other factors.

“As we seek to establish a world-class labour force comparable to any in the world, we must address the concerns of workers in the public sector over their remuneration. An inter-ministerial committee is being established by the Ministries of Employment and Labour Relations and Finance, to undertake the review of the single spine pay policy and make recommendations for implementation by government.”