Stakeholders at the three-day consultative meeting in Accra have agreed on January 1, 2010 as the effective date for the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP). They also agreed that the policy be implemented "while efforts are made to address concerns and challenges that may arise from its implementation." The meeting accepted a road map which began in April, this year, towards the adoption and implementation of the policy. A joint communiqué signed at the end of the meeting by the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Stephen Amoanor Kwao and the Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress, kofi Asamoah, consequently directed all unions and associations to submit all outstanding issues and concerns related to the SSPP to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC). It directed that pending the implementation of the SSPP, "salary negotiations for public sector institutions should commence from June 1, 2009" and urged organised labour to submit proposals on salary negotiations to the FWSC. The May 27-29 meeting was aimed at finding a road map for the implementation of the SSPP which is designed to correct all salary inequalities in public sector. The communiqué called on the government to mandate management of the various institutions and organised labour to negotiate the other conditions of services. "The spirit of social dialogue that characterised the deliberations at the workshop, enjoins all stakeholders to commit themselves to the arrangements reached above," the communiqué stated. By the road map, a memo is to be submitted to Cabinet by the end of next month and government has up to the end of August to issue a white Paper to enable effective education of the new pay structure to begin from September to December. The controller and Accountant General Department is also expected to test run the new pay structure for its effective implementation next January. Source: Ghanaian Times