Organised labour has cautioned that it will not accept any postponement of the January 2010 date for the implementation of the single spine pay policy. The government, organised labour and other public sector partners agreed in May this year to follow a road map leading to the implementation of a single spine salary structure for public sector workers. The structure fashioned in the new policy would not only ensure decent pay for public sector workers but would also close the distortions and inequalities in wages, where workers with equal qualification and job description receive different wages and allowances depending on which sector they are employed in. The Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, said at a stakeholders' sensitisation workshop in Accra Tuesday that organised labour was committed to the road map and processes leading up to the implementation of the single spine policy. However, the expectation of organised labour is that the Government would diligently play its part and ensure that it implemented each of the processes to ensure that the January 2010 deadline for implementation would be achieved. "We will not accept any last-minute complaints; any outstanding issues should be given maximum attention now so that they will not constitute any grounds for postponing the implementation deadline," Mr Asamoah stressed. So far, all parties have committed themselves to the processes to the implementation of the single spine salary structure. A committee set up to work on a memorandum to the SSPP has completed its work, which is now awaiting a White Paper to be issued by the executive (the Cabinet), which is currently studying the document. The TUC Secretary-General, however, acknowledged the tremendous steps that the Government with its partners had achieved with regard to the road map, saying "we re-state our commitment to the road map and look forward to exhausting all the processes and we expect it to be smooth". The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, said the Government was very committed to the process just as its partners and would ensure that the processes were completed on schedule. "Come January, we will implement the new salary policy. We will religiously follow the road map to ensure that the document is fine-tuned," the minister stated. According to the minister, although the Government was pleased with the quality of work on the SSPP memorandum, the Cabinet had formed subcommittees to further scrutinise the document to avoid distortions and ensure that its implementation was met with no major disagreements. He said the Government would also work at placing monetary value on the SSPP and that it would soon agree with organised labour and other associations on the basic pay and standardisation of allowances. Mr Kwao, therefore, called on all the partners to ensure that they put in their best to ensure a smooth and successful implementation. Several successes have been chalked up on the road map. Job analysis and evaluation, an important component of the SSPP, has been completed, and there is a proposed grading system which would be discussed by the parties. The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the implementing authority of the SSPP, has categorised public sector allowances into four, namely risk, duty, professional and responsibility, and the partners would negotiate on the base levels for each. The Chief Executive of the FWSC, Mr George Smith-Graham, said the Government had demonstrated its commitment to the process, adding that the commission was also in discussions with the World Bank to extend its funding, which ends next year, by five more years to allow the commission to carry out its mandate effectively. He said the commission would continue to use social dialogue to ensure the smooth implementation of the single spine salary structure which, he said, would be smooth. Source: Daily Graphic