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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public services joint committee discusses minimum wage

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The Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee (PSJSNC) last Friday held its first meeting as a precursor to negotiations on the new national minimum wage and the base pay under the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The negotiations will also determine the relativities of the base pay under the SSSS.

Base pay is the initial rate of compensation an employee receives in exchange for services. It excludes extra lump sum compensation such as bonuses or overtime pay, as well as benefits and increments.

An employee’s base pay can be expressed as an hourly rate or as a weekly, monthly or annual salary.

A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers must legally pay their workers. Equivalently, it is the price floor below which workers may not sell their labour.

At the conclusion of the negotiation which is scheduled to end by August this year, the government is likely to declare a new minimum wage and base pay.

The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), led by its Secretary-General, Dr Yaw Baah, is leading the representatives of about 500,000 public sector workers at the negotiations while the government is represented by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC)

In attendance at the meeting was the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah

Meeting
Representatives of workers met with the minister briefly and gave some indication about their perspectives in relation to the negotiations.

Also present was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the FWSC, Mr George Smith-Graham, who tendered in his resignation on February 8, 2017, to leave the organisation on May 9, 2017.

The Chief Director of the Employment Ministry, Mr Longman Attakumah, who was also at the meeting, told the Daily Graphic that Mr Smith-Graham’s stay as the CEO of the FWSC had been extended by the National Tripartite Committee (NTC).

He said at the maiden NTC meeting on May 3, 2017, at which Mr Smith-Graham was present, the committee asked him to defer leaving as the CEO of the FWSC until the conclusion of the determination of the base pay.

At the second meeting on May 24, 2017, Mr Smith-Graham confirmed his acceptance of staying on until August or September to lead negotiations on the determination of the base pay, Mr Attakumah added.

“It was on that basis that Mr Smith-Graham convened and chaired the PSJSNC meeting today,” he explained.

Modalities
At the request of organised labour, the FWSC has two weeks within which to organise a meeting and the period of negotiations are between July and August of every year.

Proposals on which wage should pertain as the minimum on SSSS is exchanged between the unions led by the TUC and the government represented by the FWSC, two clear weeks before the negotiations.


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