Accra, March 11, GNA - Government on Friday stressed its commitment to implement the Pay Reform Policy responsibly and to continue managing the economy to maintain the stability and engender growth in the interest of Ghanaians.

This was contained in a statement from the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment in Accra, signed by Mr Kofi Aggrey, public Relations Officer (PRO) on behalf of the Minister.

It said the government trusted that the Civil Servants Association was also committed to that objective and "comprehend the depth of the policy and encourage its early implementation along the lines proposed." The government said its doors were opened for dialogue over the issue of the "monetisation" policy contained in the 2006 Budget and would receive suggestions and modifications to the implementation. It said such a situation "will not be in the ultimate interest of the working population."

Reacting to a statement by the Association on the implementation of the policy in this year's budget, the government said its attention had been drawn to a statement by the Association on Tuesday March 7, on the modalities for implementing the policy announced last November. The statement said, the Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment and the Ministry of Public Sector Reform were surprised at the interpretations that had given to the very cordial negotiations with the Association.

It said that the decision was to find a solution to the problems affecting public sector compensation and that the pay reform policy was designed in part to achieve the objective stated in the budget statement.

"The intentions behind the policy are sound as they are good and we believe will be in the best interest of workers and the nation at large," it said, adding that the suggestion that the policy was discriminatory and negative was unfortunate.

The implementation of the policy has many implications and detailed analyses and scenarios had to be developed to guide it, the statement stated and said it was either not well understood or misinterpreted for mischievous reasons.

"Government wishes to assure all public sector workers that irrespective of whichever options and scenarios adopted for implementation, no workers will be made worse off or discriminated against".

It pointed out that there was no reason to make workers believe that they would be made worse off as implied in the statement by the Associations.