Single Spine Pay Policy Starts Next January

The Sector Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, addressing the press

The implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) will commence in January, next year, the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, has said.

Currently, a memorandum on the policy is before the Cabinet for consideration and approval, he added.

Taking his turn at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra yesterday, Mr Kwao said the government was committed to implementing the policy, adding that it would help streamline public sector wages and establish a remuneration structure that would make public sector managers and employees productive, effective and efficient.

He said in view of the decision to implement the SSPP in January 2010, and to forestall labour agitation for salary increases, the ministry, through the Fair Wages and Salary Commission and a government negotiating team, started the 2009 salary negotiations.

The process, he said, was to adjust salary levels of public employees to maintain their well-being and standard of living, as well as motivate them to increase their productivity.

That, he said, culminated in a 17-per cent salary increment over the 2008 levels, which took effect from January 2009 for public sector employees and civil servants respectively.

He said negotiations were ongoing between the government, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Ghana Medical Association and the health workers group on salaries.

Turning the spotlight on the employment situation in Ghana, Mr Kwao said the figures available on employment were the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) conducted in 2006, which revealed that 9.4 million adults aged 15 years and above were economically active in 2006 and that about three per cent of them were estimated to be unemployed.

The unemployment rate among the youth aged 15-24, he said, was estimated at about 6.9 per cent during the same period.

According to Mr Kwao, the figures appeared to be underestimated, considering the fact that many jobless but capable economically active Ghanaian adults might not be actively looking for jobs and were termed “disguised or hidden unemployed”.

He said the ministry had developed a national employment policy and an implementation plan with support from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The policy, he said, sought to ensure a cross-sectoral approach to mainstream employment creation in all programmes of all the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to enhance labour-based employment and linkages between institutional training and industry.

He said the ministry would play a leading role in the implementation of the policy and its action plan, as well as co-ordinate activities of all MDAs to promote the creation of productive and gainful employment in various sectors of the economy.

“In this regard, the ministry plans to hold a stakeholder sensitisation workshop on the Employment Policy in September, this year, to operationalise the policy and integrate it into the national budget process to empower MDAs to implement employment creation activities and agenda from 2010,” he added.

The minister said moves had also been initiated to support employment in the maritime sector, adding that Ghanaian seafarers were being assisted under a UNDP supported programme to take advantage of the numerous employment opportunities in the maritime industry world-wide.

On human resource development, Mr Kwao said a national human resource development and employment creation programme and an implementation action plan were being developed and they would detail the roles, responsibilities and obligations of various stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as civil society.

“The policy will ensure the development of knowledge-based and disciplined labour force with the capacity to drive and sustain public and private sector-led growth.

It will also inform and guide policy makers, HR training institutions and other key stakeholders in HR planning, management and development,” he added.

On the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Mr Kwao said in 2008, the programme covered 54 districts and 8,426 households. An amount of GH¢2.2 million was paid to the beneficiaries.

He said this year, the LEAP would scale up from 54 districts to 80 districts and from 8,426 to 35,000 beneficiary households. A total amount of GH¢7.5 million is to be paid to the beneficiary households.

Mr Kwao said efforts had also been made to eliminate child labour and added that plans were underway to eliminate all worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector by 2011 and other sectors by 2015.