Journalists urged to be abreast of public sector emolument negotiations

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Mr Arthur

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Mr Benjamin Arthur, has stressed the need for journalists to be abreast of public sector salary and emolument negotiations in order to properly inform the public in their reportage.

He said the lack of understanding and education on labour issues by the media on rules governing negotiations often made things difficult for the Commission when dealing with agitations for pay increase by labour.

Engaging senior editors on the operations of the Commission in Accra on Thursday, Mr Arthur said issues on salary negotiation were sensitive and technical, therefore crucial for the media to get their facts correct before reporting on them in order not to misinform the public and create tension in the country.

He explained that some public sector organisations resorted to demonstrations when negotiating with the Commission when they had not exhausted the mechanisms to address their concerns, which the media often reported on.

Mr Arthur said such acts were against the rules governing salary and emolument negotiations.

The CEO of FWSC further said some public sector organisations accused the FWSC of not giving them hearing or audience on salary negotiations and emolument matters.

According to him, a public sector organisation could not engage the FWSC for salary negotiations when they did not have Collective Bargaining Certificate (CBC).

In this regard, Mr Arthur urged the media to quiz such public sector entities whether they had Collective Bargaining Certificate, when they approach them with stories on salary negotiation issues.

He said per laws of the Commission it could not engage public sector workers in banter in the media on issues of salary negotiations.

Mr Arthur said the doors of the Commission was opened to the public and the media and said the media should approach the commission for clarification on stories on emolument and salary negotiations they want to put out.

Responding to the issues of measuring productivity, the FWSC CEO said the Single Spine Pay Policy had mechanisms for measuring productivity especially of senior officers.

He said a template had been developed in the public sector for score card to help in the performance evaluations of workers.

Touching on the national payroll monitoring exercise embarked upon by the FWSC in 2023, he said the exercise had received great response from the public sector workers.

He said the exercise which was in line with the FWSC Act 2007, Act 733, among others was to correct under payment of allowances and salaries, correct over payment of allowances and salaries and to generally clean the Government of Ghana payroll system and strike out employees who exited the public service but still on government payroll.

Mr Arthur said the objective was to save the country more than GH¢10 billion, adding that through the exercise, the FSWC saved the country about GH¢178 million.

“The total wage bill for May 2023 declined by six per cent and one per cent over month respectively for the months of July and August after the payroll monitoring exercise was implemented. This results in a GH¢178, 359,098.51 and GH¢18,447,396.30 savings for May and August respectively month over month,” he stated.

KINGSLEY ASARE