In the quest to check the high wage bill and increase productivity, Ghana’s public and private sectors must pay workers by the hour, says Mr Austin Gamey, a renowned labour expert.
According to him, until Ghana adopts the hourly pay system in which performance targets could be strictly enforced to enhance productivity, the high public sector wage bill will continue to bedevil the economy.
“That is the only way to get value for money and ensure that workers get paid for actual work done.
“It also ensures that we do not waste our human resource,” he said.
Mr Gamey, Chief Executive of Gamey and Gamey Group made this suggestion at the closing ceremony of the Institute’s 19th Professional Executive Masters Programme in Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Accra on Saturday.
The wage bill of about 600,000 public sector workers consumes about 60 percent of the country’s revenue.
The situation has led the government to freeze employment into the public sector as it devises mechanisms to address the wage menace.
But according to Mr Gamey, many workers are getting paid for no work done, explaining that most of the daily eight-hour work period is wasted on activities that are not related to the job.
Adopting the hourly pay system, he said, would help to check the wastage in the labour sector.
According to him, Ghana needs to take a cue from most of the developed countries that pay their workers by the hour.
“The countries that give us aid are paying their workers on an hourly work performance basis where if you don’t work, you don’t get paid,” he said.
In his view, the adoption of hourly pay system would enable the country to secure increased productivity that commensurate with the high wage bill.
By: Nii Adotey/adrdaily.com
