<<Print>>

The Post Migration Implementation Committee on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) has recommended the refund of the conversion difference deducted from the salaries of doctors. It said a letter from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), dated January 30, 2012, which directed the Controller and Accountant General�s Department (CAGD) to �suspend the recovery of the Conversion Difference (CD) paid to non-eligible public sector health workers during their migration onto the SSSS until further notice,� must be adhered to. This was part of a two-point recommendation by the Technical Committee which submitted its report to the Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee (PSJSNC) last week for deliberation and adoption. The meeting, however, was inconclusive, sources at the meeting told the Daily Graphic. Another is scheduled for this week to conclude issues such as CD and reduced pensions complained by some public sector workers, including doctors, as a result of their migration onto the SSSS. The report, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily Graphic, also recommended that as public sector doctors� total compensation had gone up following the implementation of the new pay policy, they could, on their own, contribute to the third-tier pension scheme to compensate for the shortfall in their pension contributions as a result of a reduced basic salary on the SSSS. �In a sense, they would not necessarily be made worse-off. What is more, this is to be seen as part of the migration process started on January 1, 2010,� the report said. The committee, in reaching the conclusions, observed that the basic salaries of majority of doctors on the SSSS were lower than their basic salaries on the Health Services Salary Structure (HSSS). The report, however, emphasised the fact that the basic salary of doctors on the HSSS was a consolidation of their Additional Duty Hour Allowance (ADHA) and their basic salary. The committee sought to find ways of treating the social security deductions in order not to make public sector doctors worse off and found that Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) used a contributor�s three best years� annual salary in computing social security benefits. Thus, a contributor who had satisfied qualifying conditions for pensions would not suffer �reduction in monthly pension benefits under the first tier even if his or her salary on the SSSS is lower than on the HSSS.� However, it was observed that a job holder could suffer if he or she qualified only for a lump sum payment because the qualifying conditions of 180/240 months or 15/20 years contribution had not been met. The person would also face a reduction in the second-tier pension contribution with a reduced basic salary, as the second-tier is defined contribution scheme, replacing the lump-sum payment under the SSNIT scheme, the committee observed. In its second recommendation, therefore, the committee said doctors could make contributions on their own towards the third-tier scheme to compensate for the shortfall in their pension contributions, particularly when doctors� total compensation had gone up following the implementation of the SSSS. The post migration technical committee was constituted in November, 2012, by the PSJSNC to review the migration of the more than 500,000 public sector workers with more than a 100 salary structures onto the unitary SSSS. Chaired by Mr J. N. K. Gadikor of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the 15-member committee had a wide representation of experts from organised labour, the ministries of finance and employment, as well as the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). A subcommittee within the technical committee was tasked to investigate some grievances of public sector doctors, that is, their reduced pensions as a result of a reduced basic salary on the SSSS, as well as issues relating to the recoveries of CD mistakenly paid to them at the time of their migration onto the SSSS. Social partners, that is the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashietey; the Acting Director, Economic, Research and Forecasting Division, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, representing the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning; the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei and the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, on Thursday, April 11, 2013, signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to commit to the process of dealing with the issue of CD and reduced pensions, which were then under review by the post migration committee.