The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has denied recent media reports that it has engaged in illegal negotiations with some organizations and said no negotiations has started.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. George Smith Graham explained that since government has brought on board all public service institutions under one salary structure, it is impossible to engage one institution because they are many.

"Negotiation itself has not started and we have not done anything illegal. It is not possible and we can't engage them one on one because it will lead to distortions. That is why we engage organized labour".

Speaking at a media training programme on the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in Accra, Mr. Graham said the commission will not impose anything on anybody but will continue to engage as it is in their own interest to do so.

"We will continue to ask organizations to come on board, discuss issues and reach a consensus to have a very comprehensive policy like the SSPP to push the nation forward."

According to him, job evaluation and placement is complete. He explained that about 90% of the problems had to do with placement since most institutions were not happy about the processes. He told the media that many of the institutions felt their placement and subsequent salaries would be lower with the implementation of the SSPP.

"But this is not so," he exclaimed. "The commission has the capacity to do a good work. Not everyone's salary will see an imminent increase but no one's salary will be reduced either. People will continue to earn the salaries they are taking but those who are losing will see some gains," he added.

He announced that the commission will embark on a nationwide road show next week to educate the public on the new salary structure, so they will understand the issues better.

The media training was to equip media personnel with information on the SSPP, to enable them understand, better appreciate and disseminate issues on the policy as part of the extensive public education and communication campaign strategy of the FWSC.

The Director, Pay Policy Analysis and Research, Mr. John Yaw Amankrah explained a broad public education will ensure a well informed public, foster participation and ownership. He noted that due to low remuneration, the public service continues to lose highly productive employees to the private sector.

He recalled that since the 1980s governments have instituted actions to address the issue. This experienced coherence when government detached direct service delivery from most ministries to establish separate services such as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) among others.

This led to the establishment of about eighty different structures which resulted in a disparity between public service and civil service salaries. In May 2006, therefore, he added, CoEn Consulting ltd was engaged to design a sustainable pay policy.

The ultimate objective of the Single Spine Pay Policy is to ensure equity, fairness and transparency in public service salary administration and enhance performance and productivity. It will place all public service employees on vertical structure, ensure that jobs within the same job value range are paid within the same range and also allow government to manage the wage bill more efficiently.

According to Mr. Amankrah, major elements that distinguish the SSPP from previous ones is that it is developed through extensive stakeholder consultation and participation from design to the promulgation of the FWSC Act, 2007 (Act 737) to the design of a grading structure for public service jobs based on the results of job evaluation exercise.

He said inducement allowances have been included as part of strategies to attract and retain skills in short supply and deployment of the public servants in deprived areas.

A government white paper was issued and gazetted on November 26, 2009 on the SSPP. Its position is that SSPP is acceptable for implementation effective January 2010; the first six months should be used to address technical problems, endorse the use of market premiums and inducements to attract and retain the right mix of skills in short supply; and deploy staff to deprived areas to ensure effective delivery of public goods and services; and adopt a phased-out implementation approach such that the cost of the SSPP does not disrupt the micro-economic stability.

Outstanding implementation issues for the FWSC include negotiations with organized labour and associations on the base pay and relativities on the spine, allowances to be consolidated into base pay and other allowances and conditions of employment for participating institutions.

Others include determination of jobs to be re-evaluated prior to implementation arising from discussion of issues with institutions.

The basic factors that will be used to evaluate jobs under the SSPP include knowledge and skill, responsibility, work conditions and environment and efforts.