Wage negotiations between government and labour have often raised tensions among the parties. The negotiations this year have taken a different twist altogether. The parties could not reach an agreement on the 2023 base pay before the Finance Minister presented the 2023 Budget and Government’s Economic Policy to Parliament on Friday November 24, 2022. After three rounds of negotiations, nothing has changed. Labour says “it’s either 60% or nothing else”.
The state of Ghana’s public sector wages has been the subject of hot exchanges between labour union leaders and government officials for some time now. While government spokespersons often argue that public sector workers earn enough to take care of themselves and their dependants, the workers themselves think otherwise. They maintain they are being short-changed for all their hard labour. The recent agitations by state attorneys and medical doctors over conditions of service are few illustrations of the situation. State Attorneys embarked on a nationwide strike in June over poor working conditions, unpaid allowances and low pensions, among other things. The strike has crippled the country’s judicial system as most cases had to be adjourned indefinitely. Similarly, medical doctors 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. University teachers also went on strike. So did first and second cycle school teachers. And ultimately, all public sector workers laid down their tools to back their demand for the payment of cost of living allowance. Strikes are an annual ritual in Ghana.
The nation’s quest to improve its salary administration, to reward equal work with equal pay has led to the implementation of a number of salary regimes notable among them being the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) which succumbed in 2009 to the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). 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. In fact, apart from the change in name, the new salary regime had not given any significant impetus to workers’ purchasing power. 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.
While the bourgeois continuee to suffer low salaries, an elite group of people known popularly as “Article 71 Office Holders” continue to enjoy enhanced salaries and perks. The 1992 Constitution recognizes and provides in Article 71(2) 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 provision puts the President and Article 71 office holders in a masters’ league of abundance, grace and glory while ordinary citizens struggle with little. If the SSSS is to harmonize pay and reward workers equitably then the review committee should strongly recommend that all workers be placed on one structure; nothing justifies the disparity in the conditions of service of Article 71 officials and other public sector workers.
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 levels.