The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC)’s ongoing review of the Single Spine Salary system is planning to make productivity, rather than pay grade as the main basis of how much public sector workers are paid.
This was revealed by the Acting Director, Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Head of Public Affairs of the Commission, Earl Ankrah.
“Although the productivity aspect is supposed to be a part of the Single Spine, we’ve not started but during this year’s National Labour Conference, participants signed a communique that said the Single Spine must be reviewed and I believe the review process will factor in the productivity aspect of salaries,” he said recently on Accra-based Joy FM.
Productivity has traditionally not been the yardstick by which public sector workers are paid but just the expectation of what they are to do in the positions they find themselves in.
Consequently, many public sector workers go to work when they please, laze about in their offices, and usually close earlier than they are required to – basically whiling away time through the month for the next paycheck.
Earl Ankrah’s revelation is against the backdrop of the position by Government Statistician, Dr. Samuel Annim that most public sector workers are paid twice what they really deserve.
Following the statement, he has come under fire from the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG), asking him to provide data to back his assertion.
In a statement signed by its Deputy Executive Secretary, Kojo Krakani, CLOGSAG demanded that the Government Statistician provide, among other things, indicators and the sample size used to conduct the research.
“The Association would appreciate it if you could provide us with the indicators used in your research, the sample size, the stratification and any other relevant data information to enable us to have an objective assessment of your findings. Kindly treat it as a matter of urgency,” the statement said.