General Secretary of the Health Services Workers Union, Franklin Owusu Ansah, says the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) implemented by the Ghanaian government in 2010 has outlasted its worth.
The Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) is one of the major components of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) introduced by the Government of Ghana and got implemented in 2010, to regulate the payment of public service workers especially those under article 190 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
The term single spine basically refers to the principle that all public sector workers no matter their area of specialization and the public organization they belong to must be placed or linked to one common salary structure, typically like all nerves and organs of the body connected with the human spine.
Franklin Owusu Ansah says the labour unions have set up a committee to decide on a percentage increase in salaries to be presented to government to integrate into its 2023 Budget.
Reacting to why the labour unions are pleading with government for the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) on the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun, he said, ““We discuss pay increment annually and we’ve already negotiated that with gov’t in 2021. We negotiate a 7 percent increment last year, but the current inflation has caused the prices of goods and services to go up not less than 20% and that is why we are asking the gov’t to pay us COLA.
The negotiation we are doing today is for next year’s implementation and that’s why gov’t, employers and workers met in Nkwatia in February. We all agreed the Single Spine Salary Structure has outlived its usefulness. The main reason the SSSS was introduced is not working.”
But before all these are done, the labour unions say they are suffering under these conditions and appeal to government to help them. “This is not a salary increment because we can’t negotiate for increments twice in a year. We are pleading with government to give us something before we start the negotiations.”
The Trade Unions Congress (TUC), has called on government to give public sector workers a 20% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
According to the the TUC, this will help better the lot of public sector workers across the country.
Speaking at this year’s May Day Celebration at the Black Star Square, the General Secretary of the TUC, Dr. Yaw Baah, also called for an overhaul of government’s single spine salary structure, removal of petroleum taxes and an increase in the minimum wage to bring relief to the public sector workforce.
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