Learning from our mistakes
Our progress in many spheres of human endeavour is quite slow because we are not learning from our experiences.
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History is very helpful if it serves to remind us of our past and we allow yesterday’s experiences to guide us into the future.
It is said that people who do not learn from history are doomed to fail.
Developments on the labour front show that we have not learnt our lessons and we tend to repeat indecisions of many years ago.
We think majority of our people have forgotten so soon that not too long ago health professionals used to enjoy what we called additional duty hour allowance.
The implementation of that condition of service came up against many challenges, especially frequent labour unrests to protest against delays in the payment of the allowance.
The introduction of the allowance caused so much disaffection in the health sector that before its abolition, drivers in the health sector were also enjoying it.
The Daily Graphic can say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with our laws and regulations. We seem to have challenges because of our desire to reap where we have not sown.
The right compensation for work done by workers in order to promote productivity continues to elude us like the chicken and egg scenario. We continue to grope in the dark to find the right path to resolve the compensation puzzle to attain improved productivity.
It must be acknowledged that Ghana made some strides with the introduction of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), but unfortunately, its implementation has not been without challenges.
The concept of market premium as a major component of the SSPP is creating bottlenecks in the effort to attain a unified salary administration.
Organised unions in the public service demand market premium without adherence to the guidelines, which creates chaos on the industrial scene.
It is interesting that the White Paper on the guidelines on market premium says in part that the introduction and implementation of market premium must be driven by guidelines to avoid abuse.
Our lack of foresight has brought us to this point again, with many labour agitations just like the days of the implementation of the additional duty hour allowance, as there was nothing to guide the engagement.
The introduction of guidelines on market premium is likely to dash the hopes of a section of workers who had expected to improve their pay cheque with market premium.
The Daily Graphic, however, hopes that the government will engage the social partners in an open discussion of the guidelines to get their co-operation in efforts at attaining industrial peace and harmony in the country.
Industrial harmony is not attained by the parties’ insistence on the labour laws. It works when the parties also look at the practice.
The Daily Graphic appeals to the professional bodies that have transformed into labour unions to study the labour laws in order to follow the grievance procedure in seeking redress for their concerns.
We must also bear in mind that nobody goes to the negotiation table with an entrenched agenda. Compromise is the name of the game.
The Daily Graphic once again urges doctors, university teachers and government pharmacists who are on strike to call off their action to restore calm on the labour front.
