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The Industrial and Commercial Workers� Union (ICU) is backing the International Monetary Fund�s (IMF) demand for rightsizing of the public sector. The union believes that rightsizing, which could result in retrenchment of public sector workers, is a necessary evil. General Secretary of ICU, Mr Solomon Kotei disclosed this to The Finder in Accra. The IMF wants government to freeze employment into the public sector, except the education and health sectors. As part of the IMF bailout programme, the government aims at bringing the wage bill-to-revenue ratio down from 53% in 2014 to 35% over the medium term, in line with the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) target. This will require wage restraint over the full three-year programme period, with increases consistent with expected disinflation. To also help achieve this objective while improving public services, the authorities will design a civil service reform strategy during 2015 with the assistance of development partners, which will aim at increasing the productivity and rationalising the size of the civil service. A taskforce will be instructed to provide recommendations to the government as part of the rightsizing exercise. Also, the Ministry of Finance will collaborate with the Public Services Commission (PSC) and the Office of the Head of Civil Service to ensure that recruitment takes place only after approval by the Ministry of Finance. The effective date of recruitment of new staff into the public service should not precede the financial clearance date, and sanctions under the law will be applied to non-compliant controlling officers. Mr Kotei admitted that the public sector is over-bloated and needs rationalising to cleanse the public sector wage bill. According to him, in the event that the proposed rightsizing and redeployment would result in redundancies, ICU would ensure that affected persons receive adequate severance package. Mr Kotei stated that the rightsizing and redeployment should also be complimented with cleaning the wage bill.