POTAG Misses Opportunity At Single Spine Discussions

Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has concluded discussions with the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana [POTAG] on their Market premium. A market premium is a monetary award to attract and retain skills in short supply. The previous gap of market premium between polytechnic lecturers and university lecturers before the discussions was 55%. The ideal gap between them, considering all factors involving the differences between Universities and Polytechnics, is suggested to be around 20%. However by the end of the discussions, FWSC had closed the gap to 11.2%. This also implies that the implementation will take retrospective effect, with payments of arrears all the way from January, 2010 for POTAG members. When discussions on the subject commenced earlier on, POTAG proposed a Market Premium of 125% which places them above the Market Premium of mainstream universities. To this, the FWSC counter-proposed 60%. After lengthy deliberations between the two parties, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission fully stretched its mandate and finally offered a market premium of 90% as against a minuscule move from 125% to 114% by POTAG. POTAG turned down FWSC�s 90% market premium, insisting that the Commission�s offer does not totally close the gap between them and the Universities. Documentation made available to FWSC by the National Council for Tertiary Education [NCTE] however indicates that there is a clear difference between a polytechnic and a university in Ghana. Consequently, the two cannot be at par with respect to the components of their remunerations. In the meantime, FWSC has earlier bridged the existing gap of disparity between the Polytechnics and Universities by granting a grading structure for POTAG Senior Academic Members which is at par with the University Senior Academic Members. This was done cognizant of the need to maintain the integrity of the Polytechnics in terms of its ability to attract the needed skills to achieve its mandate, and to prevent seepage of teachers to the Universities.