Accra,The National Tripartite Committee (NTC) has agreed to set up a committee to review Ghana’s pay system and to set up a system that links pay to productivity.
The committee is expected to look at a total overhaul of the pay system that will engender productivity while protecting the rights of the worker in decent work environment, as well as how to put in place a unified pension system, with a focus on the second tier.
Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, who read the communique on behalf of the NTC at a meeting to announce outcomes of the Committee’s negotiations, said the committee will review the pay structure with a view to improving productivity both at the national and organisational levels.
He said the Committee had accepted the challenge thrown by President Akufo-Addo to labour; both public and private, at the 2017 May Day celebration, to look at how best to increase productivity and reward labour for their inputs into production at both national and organisational level.
Mr Awuah said the review will affect the Single Spine Salary system, implementation of which has been fraught with problems.
The NTC, after the negotiations also agreed to set the 2018 National Daily Minimum Wage (NDMW) at GH9.68 effective January 2018; a 10 percent increase from the current GH8.80.
The Committee composed of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Trades Union Congress and the Ghana Employers Association, called on all organisations whose daily minimum wage was below the new rate to adjust it upward by the effective date.
Dr Yaw Baah, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress, who represented organised labour, said the inflation was expected to fall below 10 percent in 2018, thus the 10 percent increase in the NDMW.
This, he said, would allow workers especially those in the informal sector who earn minimum wage have some gain.
He urged government to carry out its responsibility of ensuring compliance with the daily minimum wage by all employees.
He said the labour division of the Ministry should be resourced to monitor compliance with the rate.
He also urged government to ensure that persons who earned a minimum wage were exempt from taxes.
Mr Terrence R. Darko, President of the Ghana Employers’ Association, said the Committee, whose work has spanned several months, had considered all the factors relevant in determining the minimum wage, especially the vulnerable in society, who were often not represented at such meetings.
He stressed that while some employers who were structured, paid above the minimum wage, negotiations at the enterprise level was dependent on the performance within that particular enterprise within the economy as to its ability to adjust salaries and wages of its members.
We are all fully aware of the difficulties that we all face, as individuals, as employees and as employers. We are all working towards the restructuring of our economy so that we can see growth in this economy; with that we will all benefit in the long term.
Source: Ghana News Agency