The single spine salary structure has failed woefully – TUC

According to the Congress, the structure has failed in its mandate to address salary inefficiencies in the public sector.

In an interview on Asaase Radio, Joshua Ansah, deputy general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) since its implementation has failed to achieve its purpose.

“it [SSPP] has totally failed in achieving its objectives. Because in 2010, we [public sector workers] hailed it. We actually called for it thinking that it is going to change our fortunes in terms of salaries but, it has rather come to worsen the situation.

“A lot has gone down the drain and we think that we need to resurrect all the things that didn’t go well; put them on the table and look at the pros and cons, what didn’t go well, what went well and together, we build a better structure for ourselves.”

He added that “the disparities are many, we can’t imagine that the single spine which was supposed to be one of the best structures of this country is now the worst. Those on the salary structure are now the least paid even below the minimum wage level. You can see it’s a big negative comparing it to the objectives in which the single spine was set up.”

Ken Ofori-Atta - Finance Minister Pulse Ghana

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) says the work of the union’s members have been taken over by special assistants and consultants appointed by the government.

“From this month onwards, may we be spared the excesses of personal or special assistants to top political appointees interfering with the day-to-day activities of civil servants, locking up the office of substantive directors, attending meetings on behalf of the institutions instead of the staff of the civil local government or the local government service.

“In some of the institutions, these personal assistants (take) the positions and virtually become the supervisors even though they have not received the requisite training and experience and are attending courses for serving officers,” he said this in a speech while commemorating May Day.