The current agitation by Pharmacists to lay down their tools beginning today September 4th is “neither here nor there”, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has stated.
The Commission implementing the public sector single spine pay policy said in a reaction statement to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday and noted that the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) members should rather go to the National Labour Commission to be placed back on the SSSS as the way forward.
It said: “Having sought the suspension or reversal of the migration of members of the GHOSPA on to the SSSS (Single Spine and Salary Structure), all GHOSPA needs to do to is to write back to the NLC to be put back on to the SSSS.” The following are the facts (unedited) as stated in the statement by the Commission on the GHOSPA’s migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure:
The Facts
The health sector was migrated as a whole following a meeting held at Dodowa from 2nd-5th October, 2011 for the purpose. This included the Medical Officers (Doctors), Pharmacists, Nurses, Allied Health Professionals, Administrators and Allied Groups.
The grades and applicable interim Market Premium factor for the health sector were arrived at in consultation with representatives of Managements of the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and the Teaching Hospitals with the active involvement of concerned labour Unions and Associations, guided by the job evaluation scores and using administrative factors of internal relativity and consistency.
Following the migration of the health sector onto the Single Spine Salary Structure, however, the leadership of the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) indicated that they had some concerns on their grading and the market premium factor. They therefore requested the suspension of their migration until all their grievances had been resolved. GHOSPA’s grievances revolved around three (3) issues:
