Takoradi, April 28, GNA - Mr Ellis Ankomah, Western Regional Secretary of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Tuesday said public institutions that would benefit from the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) are those created under article 190 of the 1992 constitution. He was addressing a meeting of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Council of Labour at Takoradi.

Mr Ankomah said the institutions, which are paid from the consolidated fund include the Judicial Service, Audit Service, Ghana Education Service, Prisons Service, Parliamentary Service, Ghana Health Service and the Statistical Service.

Others are the Ghana National Fire Service, Custom, Excise and Preventive Service, Internal Revenue Service, Ghana Police Service and public corporations other than those established for commercial ventures, he said.

Mr Ankomah said corporations such as the Electricity Company of Ghana, Ghana Water Company and the Volta River Authority, which are not covered by the SSSS but have collective bargaining agreements could negotiate with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to arrive at an acceptable salary structure.

He said this is because the commission is set up by an act of Parliament to ensure fair, transparent and systematic implementation of the government's pay policy.

Mr Ankomah said the SSSS is designed to address low level of pay, inequities of salaries across and within the public service, classification of multiple pay structures and numerous allowances and lack of governmental control over public sector pay.

He said presently, there are over 60 pay structures in the public and civil services and that placement on the SSSS would be done through job evaluation, to remove inequities in wages and salaries. Mr Ankomah said the base pay for the SSSS has not been determined but it would be higher than the minimum wage. He said the SSSS would be implemented in five phases starting from January 2010 to December 2015.