Acting Director of Research at the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Earl Ankrah, says currently the Commission does not use level of productivity to determine salary increments.

He said, “[Productivity is not yet on the table] now it’s based on what roles they’re  performing. Of course to get on the single spine salary structure there are 13 structures of job evaluation that we look into and then you’re placed on the structure that determines what salary you’ll earn.

“And let’s remember around April every year, the parties go to the table and negotiate for your base pay for the coming year. So that’s mostly what happens.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he noted that plans had been underway to introduce a system of evaluation for public sector workers that will take into consideration their productivity levels, but the project was abandoned after a pilot study produced undesirable results.

“We conducted two pilots; one on a smaller scale and one on a bigger scale than the first one and the responses were not that encouraging.”

He noted that whereas some institutions had complied with the evaluation process; setting targets and writing appraisals etc, other institutions had either delayed in doing so or had failed to comply at all.

“As in institutions that had actually done it, okay, because you have to have conducted it and the do your appraisals and bring your results to us. But most institutions hadn’t done it. If they had done it, they were not submitting them on time.

“That could mean that the targets were being set late, which is not proper because the Public Services Commission has an instrument which should be used and that instrument states the period within which you should set your targets.

“One institution cannot set their target in January and another institution delays till about March before they set their targets , then what are you evaluating? And there is a period within the year around June or so that you’re supposed to do your appraisal, and there’s a period at the end of the year when you’re supposed to submit to do the complete appraisal.”