When Comforting Turns Chilly

I certainly am not great with words of comfort. I find it easier to offer practical help. Say, help beat the crap out of an oppressor (no I really couldn’t); give money or material assistance if I have it to give; offer my opinion on some matter etc. 

That is why I commend, even admire those who struggle to find the right words to say to a person in distress, disappointed, grieving, or facing one life challenge or other. It can’t be easy. 

But sometimes intended words of comfort, assurance, hope and encouragement really suck. Why is this so? Because bad timing, insensitivity, even inappropriateness of the circumstances make them so even if by themselves they are harmless.

Consider that I meet an acquaintance who wanting to commiserate with me on the death of my dad, asks how old my father was. I say to her, 80 plus. And her response? “Oh that’s a ripe age (to die she means). Lucky you, your dad lived a full life”. Translated in my grief, “lucky that my dad died”? Well guess what, I made a mental note to return the compliment.

I was once sent a comic picture of a mouse that had escaped the trap that was apparently set for it. The caption was, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” I was in a cranky, mildly dejected state so I retorted that what doesn’t kill you could very well maim you! I clearly need to rethink my sense of humour I know. 

When a woman whose husband did that despicable thing, leaving her all scare-faced, potentially paralyzed for good and broke heard those same words on her hospital bed, she did not find much solace in them either. Why couldn’t she see the wisdom in those words?   

Now I know as a child of God, I must trust the saying, “when God brings you to it, he’ll take you through it”. It’s very reassuring - when you know it is God who did bring you to IT. 

A similar saying, “what God puts together let no man put asunder” is often used to support an aversion to divorce. And when it comes in the form; “what God puts together no man can put asunder”, it is meant to be a warning to relationship breakers or a guarantee that no matter the difficulties in a relationship, it will survive … if God willed it. But suppose He did not and often we know he didn’t, pretty much the same way we know the devil didn’t – so how comforting is that?  

I am tempted to say that when people are in doubt about what to say to another person, they should stay silent but then again, we are usually not in doubt are we?

Confronting Ebola

On social media friends related to a young woman were seeking information on ambulance services for the husband who needed immediate attention.  No one had answers. 
The young woman reportedly drove the husband to the nearest hospital but on arrival nurses refused to attend to her husband for fear of contracting ebola. 

Clearly traumatized this young woman, simply kept screaming for help until eventually a doctor came out ..... to pronounce the husband dead.  She was then asked to carry her corpse away. She did find the courage to do just that and found a health facility in one of Accra's suburbs that received the corpse.

This was August 13, 2014 and the young woman is now a widow with a soon to be one year old. But those are just the sorry details. Angry friends on the social media platform called the medical personnel who refused to attend to the dead man, "unpatriotic" Ghanians who were only interested in the benefits of their jobs. 

But were the medical personnel being unjustifiably insensitive or even "wicked" as they were called or were they plainly and legitimately afraid.

Some have suggested that the Ghana government's 3 month moratorium on international conferences and public gatherings is unnecessarily harsh.  I think the government's response is no different from that of the nurses and the doctor who would have nothing; or is rather are helpless when it comes to handling anything to do with ebola- real or potential.

 

In Search of a Pay Policy- Ghana’s SSPP

In 2010 Ghana introduced a new public sector pay policy, the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) to resolve 4 key concerns that had hounded public pay policies in the past. As restated by President Mahama in an address to the National Forum on the SSPP in August 2013, these concerns include pay disparities within the public sector; the rising wage bill; multiple pay negotiations and finally the disconnect between pay and productivity. The SSPP unlike the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) which preceded it hinges on a single base pay and applies across all public institutions without the opportunity to opt out; this means internal disparities experienced with the earlier regime are technically removed while multiple negotiations become redundant. Further a Public Service Performance Management Monitoring and Evaluation system is reported to be in the offing to address productivity issues. Thus it would seem safe, albeit simpleminded to conclude that once “implementation challenges” currently engaging workers and the government are resolved, the SSPP would indeed achieve its stated objectives. Regrettably the SSPP's composition and policy prescriptions are unlikely to make it the panacea for Ghana’s public pay policy blunders.      

Take for instance the consequences for pay administration and labour relations imposed by the different “pay” components within the policy. Beyond core pay the SSPP offers 4 categories of “benefits and allowances”. While category 1 is now consolidated in the base pay all other categories are made out as separate payments. In category 2 are allowances such as for tools and overtime; funeral grants, entertainment, medical allowances, motor cycles etc belong to category 3 and finally category 4 allowances “associated with top management positions” include free accommodation, unlimited use of fuel and free utilities. Off course some of these motivational incentives may be justified within our socioeconomic context but others are clearly a continuation of the status based reward system inherent in previous public sector pay regimes that encouraged nepotism rather than productivity and growth. This is not unrelated to issues of proportionality between pay in the public sector qua public sector and so-called “Article 71” officers who are exempted from the SSPP.  

The SSPP also provides for “market premiums and inducements”. Inducements are allowances paid to “jobholders who work in underserved or deprived areas as defined by the FWSC”. No guidelines for implementation of this component are available yet as far as is known. Market premiums on the other hand are incentives paid for scarce skills. They are not subject to pay negotiations and are determined by government discretion within the constraints of the national budget. The April 2013 government white paper on market premiums provides that a scarce skill “is one that is in short supply relative to the demand for it in the labour market within a defined period as determined by government”. 

Undoubtedly the periodic revision of critical skills and definition of underserved areas is going to be a challenging game of chess but wrangling between government and workers and within workers’ bodies over which professions or positions make or drop off the list is likely to create more agitation on the labour front than is anticipated. Again as a non-negotiable variable incentive it is questionable whether the strategy will achieve the specific objective of making the government a more competitive employer on the labour market.

A more trying question that arises however is whether a legitimate industrial action may be grounded on any of the pay components as they stand. The case of the Polytechnic Teachers’ Association of Ghana (POTAG) makes an interesting example. POTAG and recently the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) are fighting for the reversal of a new Ministry of Education policy to replace research allowance, paid directly to teachers, with a central research support fund. The strike has been in place for months, causing polytechnics in the country to shut down. POTAG argues that the allowance was negotiated as part of their conditions of service. Though a court has ruled that the POTAG strike is legal; it is uncertain whether the research allowance is to be considered part of the basic pay of teachers, an allowance, incentive payment or a “work resource” within the logic of the SSPP; nor is it clear how that should impact the labour regime.    

In March 2010 Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) warned in the GTUC Policy Bulletin Vol. 6 No. 1 that workers would accept the SSPP “only if it ensures fairness, transparency, consistency and logic in administration of the salary structure” and that the SSPP would suffer the fate of the GUSS otherwise. Perhaps that is a position that public sector pay administrators must revisit, as feverish efforts are being made to secure the survival and success of the policy.

akuyaafriyie@gmail.com