Resolving Single Spine headache

The government and organised labour have not been able to agree on the exact effects of the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) on the national economy.

For weeks, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) turned their backs on consulting rooms and theatres and hospital pharmacies over the payment of market premiums and other allowances.

As of now, members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are on strike over the payment of certain allowances due them.

The labour scene has been very turbulent this year and the industrial actions disrupted productivity in an already volatile economic environment.

Faced with agitation from all sections of organised labour, the government felt the need for more stakeholder understanding of the SSPP and the fallouts from the implementation process.

Consequently, the Presidential Forum on the SSPP was held in Ho last Tuesday and Wednesday, during which all the stakeholders examined the challenges arising out of the implementation blues of the policy.

In a speech at the forum, President John Mahama acknowledged the challenges but promised that the government would not cancel the pay policy.

Rather, he said, it would revamp the SSPP to remove the inequality in the salaries of public service workers and ensure “equal pay for equal work”.

The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, noted that the SSPP had brought some sanity into the administration of public sector pay but asked the government to take steps to reduce what it described as inefficiencies, wastage and corruption in the payment regime.

It is good news to hear that the government is committed to the pay policy and insists that workers step up their productivity in order to increase the size of the national cake for it to be shared equitably.

Frankly speaking, the public sector wage bill threatens the health of the economy.

According to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper, the government spent GH¢4.6 billion, representing 70 per cent of the country’s tax revenue of GH¢6.7 billion, as compensation payment to public servants from January to June this year.

The fact that the cost of implementing the SSPP imposes a huge headache on the administration of the economy is no longer in doubt. However, the stakeholders now have a better appreciation of the challenges following the Ho forum.

In all these, however, there is also the need for equity in the system to ensure that all public sector workers are placed on the SSSS.

While we bemoan the headache imposed on us by the SSPP, we still afford the luxury of maintaining some public sector workers on the Article 71 payroll to exert further pressure on the national exchequer.

It will serve the interest of the people and reduce the burden on the government if the President and his team muster the political will to put all Article 71 officials on the SSPP.

As the name suggests, the SSSS will streamline the administration of public sector compensation and reward packages and thereby eliminate agitation and industrial lockouts.

Let us reform the SSPP to serve the needs of all public sector workers and restore industrial harmony, which is a prerequisite for increased productivity.


Daily Graphic/graphic.com.gh/Ghana