Accra, July 7, GNA - Members of Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and Federation of University Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG) would be migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure by the end of July this year. Other institutions to be migrated include; University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG), Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), Health Sector Workers including Ghana Medical Association(GMA), Ghana Registered Nurses Association(GRNA), Health Service Workers Union (HSWU) of Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) as well as Allied Health Sector Workers.

Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare announced this at a press conference in Accra on Thursday. He explained that the placement in July followed series of meetings between TEWU and FUSSAG with the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) and Vice Chancellors. The press conference was to brief the unions and associations on the level of implementation and migration onto the SSSS. It follows the issuing of ultimatum by some labour unions and associations to the FWSC to migrate them unto the SSSS and to resolve other related matters.

Mr Mensah noted that the unions raised concerns about delay in migration onto the SSSS, payment of salary arrears, negotiations on Base Pay and Pay Point Relativity as well as delayed negotiations on allowances classified as Categories 2 and 3 Allowances. Base pay is the ultimatum salary on the SSSS and the Pay Point Relativity is the percentage differences between the pay points on the salary.

He explaine d that with UTAG, the Vice Chancellors agreed to refer the job re-evaluation report to a technical committee to be set up by the Vice Chancellors to critically study the report. This came against the background where UTAG leadership had indicated earlier that their members would not be rushed onto the SSSS without a critical study of the results and agreement on the grade levels. With regard to CLOSSAG, Mr Mensah said, further meetings were being held to discuss and agree on their grade structure to pave way for eventual migration.

He said FWSC was in the final stages of discussion with Public Service Workers in the health sector on their grade structure and market premiums payable to deserving categories before they would be migrated.

Mr Mensah said the delay in payment of the allowances were as a result of failure of unions to submit their comments, adding that so far only the Legal and Judicial Service and Education Non-Tertiary Service Groups had provided their comments on the rules of engagement. He urged leadership of the remaining groups to submit their comments to the Commission to enable it to begin the processes of negotiations of their allowances before they could be migrated. "It is as a result of some institutions failing to submit their migration data for verification and some of them implementing allowances which had not been approved with the fear that those allowances may not be accepted for purposes of migration,'' he explained.

Mr Mensah commended leadership of those institutions that had assisted the Commission to migrate almost 70 per cent of the entire Public Service Workers within 11 months and appealed to the leadership of the union and associations which were yet to be migrated to co-operate with the Commission.