FWSC to place teaches on single spine in January, Friday, November 26, 2010, Spread
THE Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) says it will migrate all teachers onto the single spine salary structure by January, 2011.
The delay in migrating the teachers onto the new pay structure, according to Mr George Smith Graham, the Chief Executive Officer of the FWSC, followed wide disparities in job evaluation submitted by the consultant for the project, which placed non-teaching staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) ahead of their teaching counterparts.
Mr Graham was addressing members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) from selected schools in the Accra Metropolis in Accra yesterday to address their concerns about the policy.
He said a re-evaluation exercise to correct the differences in the grading system hit a snag because those who turned up and did the re-evaluation on behalf of the teachers were not those appointed by the FWSC, while the non-teaching staff failed to turn up because of miscommunication.
He said in that regard, the GNAT and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) raised objections calling for a new re-evaluation exercise, a position supported by the GES.
He said the problem was also compounded by the late submission of data on teachers collected by the GES nation-wide in their mapping-out exercise.
The new pay policy is a unified salary structure that places all public sector employees on one vertical structure, making sure that jobs within the same job value range are paid within the same pay range.
The implementation of the policy started in July 2010, with personnel of the Ghana Police Service.
It replaces all existing salary schemes within the public service. In the months prior to the policy's implementation, various labour groups took varied positions on certain parts of the policy they deemed not favourable.
Even though some of these labour groups have accepted the need for a single pay structure, many others have kicked against the whole idea. The most vocal of these groups being the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSSAG), which called for the scrapping of the single spine pay policy. The group called for the maintenance of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure.
Some critics say the FWSC has delayed in migrating the teachers onto the policy because of their sheer numbers but Mr Graham said, “once equity is being established in the system, the speculation about the numbers is immaterial”.
He assured the teachers that the FWSC was determined to ensure that teachers were treated fairly in the implementation of the policy.
He said as a form of motivation, an inducement allowance would be paid to employees who served the country in under-developed areas, but indicated that such people would forfeit such allowances the moment they got transferred from such communities.
He said the single spine salary structure was better than the existing pay structure because it rewarded people according to their job evaluations and not their job titles.
The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Enoch T. Mensah, said the new policy was aimed at correcting distortions in the public sector salaries.
He urged the teachers to exercise restraint as the Commission worked out the modality to ensure that they received what was due them.
The delay in migrating the teachers onto the new pay structure, according to Mr George Smith Graham, the Chief Executive Officer of the FWSC, followed wide disparities in job evaluation submitted by the consultant for the project, which placed non-teaching staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) ahead of their teaching counterparts.
Mr Graham was addressing members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) from selected schools in the Accra Metropolis in Accra yesterday to address their concerns about the policy.
He said a re-evaluation exercise to correct the differences in the grading system hit a snag because those who turned up and did the re-evaluation on behalf of the teachers were not those appointed by the FWSC, while the non-teaching staff failed to turn up because of miscommunication.
He said in that regard, the GNAT and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) raised objections calling for a new re-evaluation exercise, a position supported by the GES.
He said the problem was also compounded by the late submission of data on teachers collected by the GES nation-wide in their mapping-out exercise.
The new pay policy is a unified salary structure that places all public sector employees on one vertical structure, making sure that jobs within the same job value range are paid within the same pay range.
The implementation of the policy started in July 2010, with personnel of the Ghana Police Service.
It replaces all existing salary schemes within the public service. In the months prior to the policy's implementation, various labour groups took varied positions on certain parts of the policy they deemed not favourable.
Even though some of these labour groups have accepted the need for a single pay structure, many others have kicked against the whole idea. The most vocal of these groups being the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSSAG), which called for the scrapping of the single spine pay policy. The group called for the maintenance of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure.
Some critics say the FWSC has delayed in migrating the teachers onto the policy because of their sheer numbers but Mr Graham said, “once equity is being established in the system, the speculation about the numbers is immaterial”.
He assured the teachers that the FWSC was determined to ensure that teachers were treated fairly in the implementation of the policy.
He said as a form of motivation, an inducement allowance would be paid to employees who served the country in under-developed areas, but indicated that such people would forfeit such allowances the moment they got transferred from such communities.
He said the single spine salary structure was better than the existing pay structure because it rewarded people according to their job evaluations and not their job titles.
The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Enoch T. Mensah, said the new policy was aimed at correcting distortions in the public sector salaries.
He urged the teachers to exercise restraint as the Commission worked out the modality to ensure that they received what was due them.
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