Labour Consultant, Austin Gammeh, has stated the Single Spine Salary Structure has outlived its purpose and is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st Century.
According to him, Single Spine is currently the source of problem in salary administration on the labour front because it has served the purpose for which it was established but has outlived what it was intended to achieve.
“There must therefore be a complete overhaul of that. You cannot live with Noah’s day kind of salary structure in the 21st Century. It doesn’t work.”
“So we are paying people for putting in an appearance and not because they have work to do,” he stated.
Speaking on the impasse between the government and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) on TV3’s Saturday analytical programme the Key Points, Mr. Gammeh explained a more balanced structure with an administrative approach will address the continuous disturbance on the labour front.
This, he said, means people can earn more than they are earning presently because they are contributing to the growth and development of the business.
Mr. Gammeh observed that though the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) is supposed to be in operation, the law is not really being implemented because both employers and employees are not fully engaged.
According to him, the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was used in building the Labour Act and the Constitution enjoins the employer to open all channels of communications with the unions and working people.
“However, we are not communicating well enough; both the employer and the unions are not communicating well enough. Section 9 (g) of the Labour Act says that the employer shall keep open channels of communication with his own working people.”
“So I will enjoin all employers to ensure that they communicate and if the union is not communicating then it is violating its responsibility,” he added.
The labour consultant stressed that because the employer and workers are not communicating, the Labour Law, effectively, is not being implemented and urged stakeholders in the ongoing impasse to stop the intimidation and refrain from coercion and the attacks on each other.
He argued that writing and implementing the laws are two different things and stressed Section 97 of the Act also demands all employers to share relevant information.
According to him, the government as an employer has a very simple way of putting together its information through the budget and other relevant policies.
He stressed nothing stops government from inviting labour every quarter or twice a year and sharing information with them so they are fully abreast with what the challenges of government as an employer are.
Source: Mypublisher24.com