Ho, Oct. 5, GNA - The Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), has assured workers in the educational sector that work is progressing steadily to resolve the delay in their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure.

Mr George Smith-Graham said the problems bothered on relativities of grading within the sector, including teachers of all ranking. Mr Smith-Graham was addressing scores of graduate teachers from all over the country who converged in Ho to mark the 12th Anniversary of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) on the theme: "Quality Education: The Challenging Roles of Teacher Unions." He said the mapping to place education workers appropriately on the spine is going on at the districts along side efforts to streamline job evaluation.

Mr Smith-Graham said the new salary regime is a meticulous exercise based on the constitutional edict to pay public sector workers fair wages and that it is important for everybody to understand the principles.

He said under the new pay policy, remuneration would represent value of work and not qualification alone and that the prerequisites that go into the determination of a job's value include knowledge, work environment, effort and hazards. Mr Smith-Graham said job related allowances had been built into the new pay and that other special area allowances are being standardised and harmonised for implementation later. He said only those already on the public sector pay roll are being processed for placement on the spine.

Regarding special allowances for teachers working in deprived areas, Mr Smith-Graham said FWSC is liaising with the relevant authorities including the Statistical Service to secure the designated areas for action. He said a worker forfeits that allowance if he move out of the designated area.

Dr Yaw Baah, Deputy General-Secretary of the Ghana Trades Union said labour over the past six years had engaged government on the new salaries, spurning spurious suggestions to government by some international organisations to keep the salary budget at five per cent of GDP.

He said negotiations had been tough but fruitful. Dr Baah said the essential ingredients of the new pay policy are sustainability, fairness, consistency and transparency although a lot remained to be done. Mr Christian Addai-Poku, NAGRAT President said graduate teachers had not regretted grouping 12 years ago to fight for their interests. He said government should provide the necessary inputs including motivational compensation packages to enable teachers increase their output. Mr Addai-Poku said the success of development targets are hinged to the provision of good education. He called for book and research allowance for teachers in pre-tertiary institutions. Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education in a speech read on his behalf said teacher unions should protect the interest of their members through dialogue and not strikes and threats. He said government is doing all it could to provide the infrastructure and needs of the sector and called on the unions to "assist teachers to work in accordance with the professional code of conduct".