Strikes, demonstrations and other militant tools have unarguably become effective means of communicating labour grievances and agitations across to government and for quick responses.
The recent agitations by state attorneys and medical doctors over conditions of service are few illustrations of the situation. State Attorneys began a nationwide strike in June over poor working conditions. They are protesting unpaid allowances and poor conditions of service and low pensions, among other things. The strike has crippled the country’s judicial system as most cases have to be adjourned indefinitely.
Similarly, medical doctors have also declared a nationwide strike in July beginning with the withdrawal of all out-patient department (OPD) services. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has since 2014 warned government to provide them with conditions of service or they will resign en bloc from the public service in June 2015. This deadline was later extended to July 30 but the doctors believe government has been slow on the negotiations.
The state of Ghana’s public sector wages has been the subject of hostile exchanges for some time now. While government officials sometimes seek to create the impression that public sector workers do not put much into their jobs to merit higher incomes, public sector workers think otherwise, arguing they are being short-changed.
The nation’s quest to improve its salary administration, to reward equal work with equal pay has led to the implementation of a number salary regimes notable among them being the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) which succumbed in 2009 to the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
But apart from the change in name, the new salary regime doesn’t seem to have brought any significant change to workers’ purchasing power. Initial workers’ agitations regarding migration to, and placement on the SSSS soon gave rise to protests and strikes against pay levels, schemes of service and worsening economic conditions.
The SSSS’s inability to provide the required answers for Ghana’s wage woes by bringing equity in wage distribution across the public sector (at least in the present term) continues to be cause for concern for many stakeholders. As is the case under the new salary regime, determination of the National Daily Minimum Wage (NDMW) precedes negotiation for a new base pay. This determination sometimes extends into the middle of the year, followed by negotiations for a new Base Pay on the SSSS and consequently new salary levels for Public Sector Workers.
Implementation of the new salary level and the staggered payment of arrears (which are usually fraught with irregularities) then starts usually in the middle of the year to the angst of most workers.
Considering the several challenges and irregularities that characterize the wage administration, a serious review of the salary regime must be considered. The following proposals are worth considering:
First there would be the need to place all Article 70 office holders on the SSSS. Whereas other public sector workers including teachers, doctors and security officers are paid on the Single Spine Salary Structure, Article 71(2) provides that:
“The salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities available, to the President, the Vice-President, the chairman and the other members of the Council of State; Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers, being expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund, shall be determined by Parliament on the recommendations of the committee referred to in clause (1) of this article.”
This situation puts the President and Article 70 office holders in a masters’ league of abundance, grace and glory while ordinary citizens struggle with little. Many citizens across the country have contended strongly that the compensation regime for Article 70 office holders should not be different from that of other public sector workers; that the Article 70 office holders should also be placed on the SSSS.
If the SSSS is to harmonize pay and reward workers equitably then nothing justifies the disparity in the conditions of service of Article 70 officials and other public sector workers. Thankfully, the President has recently called for support of organized labour to bridge the gap between the gentry and the commoners. This call must succeed.
Finally, to achieve harmony in salary administration in the country it would also be necessary to negotiate salaries to span a longer period of time (say 2 years). This would enable those with the responsibility of implementing the outcomes of these negotiations including the ministry of finance and the controller and accountant general’s department enough time to make the necessary adjustments and modifications as well as to correct any mistakes arising out of the implementation of the new wage