MEMBERS of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) in four districts in the Eastern Region have affirmed support for the national hierarchy of the association not to be part of any deliberation that decided a baseline pay for the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
According to them, there were many distortions and wrong placements of members in the structure, which must first be addressed before a base pay should be considered.
They contended that anything short of that would not be accepted, since it would rather worsen the already deplorable situation of civil and local government service workers.
The consensus was reached when the national executive of CLOGSAG met the workers drawn from the Kwahu East, Kwahu South and Kwahu North districts and the Kwahu West Municipality at Mpraeso last Tuesday.
The CLOGSAG executive was on a countrywide tour to brief members on the latest development on the implementation of the SSSS.
According to it, Ceon Consultants, which were engaged to work on the SSSS, did a very bad job, as a result of which only 26 out of 1,307 placements favoured members of CLOGSAG, while most of them were placed in the remaining low category.
They also wondered why a graduate in the civil and local government service should earn the same pay as a corporal in the Police Service, while the same category of workers within CLOGSAG should be on different salary scales.
The workers, therefore, called for a new job valuation to be carried out by consultants, in partnership with others within the service to ensure that the right thing would be done.
At a certain period of the discussion, it turned emotional when a contributor said it was worrying that some civil and local government service workers who had worked for 30 years or more could not make ends meet while in active service, but had to be paid a meagre retirement benefits of about GH¢2,000.
They therefore urged the national executive not to back down on its stand but continue to fight for the correction of the distortions on the SSSS, which would go a long way in improving their lot.
Earlier, the National Treasurer of CLOGSAG, Mr Isaac Bampo Addo, had explained the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) to the workers and said the association was simply fighting for equal pay for equal work for workers with the same qualifications and experiences.
He gave an assurance that the association would do everything possible to ensure that its members would be rightly placed on the SSSS.
For his part, the National Vice-Chairman of CLOGSAG, Mr Tennyson Foli, traced the history of the workers’ agitation which led to the adoption of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure which did not work hence the decision to go by the single spine salary.
Mr Foli hinted that CLOGSAG would be tempted to adopt a drastic measure to address the issue although he did not state the exact action, stressing that workers should support the policy.
The Eastern Regional Chairperson of CLOGSAG, Madam Mary Addy, expressed concern about what she termed “dragging of feet” by the Fair Wages Commission (FWC) in addressing the legitimate grievances and concerns raised by the association.
She said the 1992 Constitution stipulated equal pay for equal work without distinction of any kind, adding that if the association “does not push harder”, the workers would be taken for granted as had been in the past.
The District Co-ordinating Director (DCD) for the Kwahu South, Alhaji Mahammadu A, Azonko, who chaired the function, said it was worrying that even DCDs and other highly qualified technocrats had been placed in the low grade of the SSSS, and called for a united front to address the anomaly.
No comments:
Post a Comment