Salary increase could trigger inflation - Gamey

Back Page Lead
15-01-09

A LABOUR Expert, Mr Austin Gamey, has warned that any attempt to implement the recent salary increases announced by the previous government will trigger a consequential inflation for the country.
That, he said, was as a result of the huge expenditures made before and during last year’s general election.
Mr Gamey told the Daily Graphic yesterday that it was improper for the employer to unilaterally announce percentage increases without the consent or consultation with public sector workers and the various trade unions.
The immediate-past government announced salary increase of between 16-34 per cent on the eve of its departure from office on January 6, 2009.
Mr Gamey suggested that other means could have been employed by the then government (employer) with the understanding of the unions to adjust salaries to certain percentages instead of lump sum percentage increases.
The issue of salary adjustment, he said, was a technical thing that required the input of social partners and experts, adding that there must be returns on the investment being made by the public who paid taxes for people to be paid.
“Section 98G of the Labour Act demands that salary increases must necessarily go with a matching productivity level. This is the guiding principle,” he said, adding that for that reason, the employer should provide the financial health of the nation so that workers would not feel they had been cheated.
Mr Gamey noted that the Fair Wages Commission was set up to ensure that sanity prevailed in salary administration on the labour front.
He underscored the need for the government to have confidence in the Fair Wages Commission, and urged it, as an employer and the workers union to negotiate.
He, however, charged the unions to give the government sometime to settle down.
On ensuring sanity on the labour front, Mr Gamey indicated that there was a Labour Act (Act 651) which “language is an industrial relations language and not a legalistic language”.
Mr Gamey said the Labour Law was to help social partners and the government to help promote labour management co-operation in the country.
“Therefore, none of the social partners should do anything to disturb the smooth implementation of the law,” he said, saying that “this is why an independent National Labour Commission was set up to oversee the actors through mediation, facilitation and arbitration”.
Mr Gamey charged labour and management to desist from the act of combative litigation and coercive force to ensure that sanity prevailed on the country’s labour front.
That, he said, was to ensure a smooth industrial front to enable Ghana to compete effectively on the global market, adding that the cost of doing business hinged on co-operation and understanding.
“If there are differences between labour and management, then we are doomed to failure,” he said, adding that labour and management must co-operate anytime there was a slip by one of the parties.
He charged members of the Judiciary to be careful regarding the precedent they set in their rulings on labour issues that were brought before them, since there were instances where labour unions had complained about the use of legalistic language by the Judiciary.
Mr Gamey appealed to the media to also desist from inflaming passions on labour issues.