Accra, Sept. 17, GNA - The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission

(FWSC) would, by close of Friday, map out strategies to step up its

communication activities to make the public understand more fully the

Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) pay policy. Mr George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive of FWSC, who disclosed

this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra, expressed

concern about agitations on the labour front concerning the

implementation of the new pay policy. He said though his outfit had ran a number of institutional education

programmes, including regional consultations, stakeholder seminars and

workshops for prospective beneficiaries of the SSSS, some of the

workers were yet to comprehend the system. Mr Smith-Graham said the Commission would re-strategise to roll out an innovative and more intensive institutional education campaign on

the pay policy, adding that experienced media practitioners would be

consulted to make meaningful inputs. He asked why aggrieved associations and workers could not use job

re-evaluation and dialogue as a medium of seeking redress on

negotiations. Speaking on the recent agitation by officers of the Ghana Prisons

Service, Mr Smith-Graham said the SSSS was to ensure that workers

were paid based on the work they did. He added that knowledge and skills required for the performance of a

job, responsibility of people, working environment - hazards involved

and efforts - physical and mental dynamics - were factors used for job

valuation. He indicated that based on those criteria, the Ghana Police Service was slightly ahead of the Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire

Service and Ghana Immigration Service. Mr Smith-Graham said the Commission was still working on the

harmonisation and standardization of allowances regime in the Civil and

Public services that had caused a lot of worry to workers who did not

fully understand how the allowances were worked out under the SSSS. He said there was the need to exercise restraint for the complexities

of the standardization process to be straightened out, after which all

allowances would be harmonized. Mr Smith-Graham said some employers in the public and civil services

had used their high allowances to compensate for low remuneration of

workers adding that if all allowance regimes were allowed under the

SSSS, they would create additional disparities under the policy. He expressed the hope that by the close of December 2010, all beneficiaries of the SSSS would have come on board the new pay scheme.

"After that has been done, FWSC will continue to conduct the inducement, market premium, performance management systems and other activities to ensure compliance," he said.

Concerning the piece-meal implementation of the SSSS, Mr Smith-Graham said it was done in order to address all challenges presented at the labour front to avert any further challenges. FWSC was established by an Act of Parliament (ACT 737, 2007) to ensure fair, transparent and systematic implementation of the government's public service pay policy and to undertake negotiations where compensation is financed from public funds, among other things.