Public Service Salaries

Aug 19, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

One observes the relatively uninformed alarums raised about individual public officers’ salaries (and benefits), outside of the context of those approved by Parliament, and supplemented by any subsequent official action.
The following information should help to put some of the reactions in a slightly more informed perspective. For example, since the late 20th century Parliaments had approved and maintained a constipated fourteen (14) grade Job/Position Structure.
Following are the values approved by Parliament in 2019, effective 2018. As can be seen the Table below is an extract from the National Estimates approved in 2019, which shows the salary scales applicable up to that point in time.
APPENDIX R (a)
SCHEDULE OF SALARY IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE
(FROM 1ST JANUARY, 2018)
Band Minimum G$/Month Maximum G$/Month Minimum G$/Daily Maximum G$/Daily
14 404,558 715,802 – –
13 335,630 563,428 – –
12 271,507 462,545 – –
11 220,554 354,807 – –
10 175,366 287,058 – –
9 141,804 220,829 – –
8 121,564 175,612 – –
7 102,058 142,105 4,255 6,194
6 88,621 111,153 3,852 4,629
5 76,988 96,946 3,439 4,045
4 70,281 79,893 3,079 3,559
3 67,214 76,116 2,955 3,405
2 64,200 72,053 2,746 3,147
1 64,200 70,073 2,537 2,837
It followed however that the Government of the day in November 2019, announced, and had implemented, a number of adjustments for all Public Sector agencies – one effect of which was the establishment of a new minimum salary/wage of $70,000 per month retroactive from January 01, 2019, along with 9% and 8.5% increase for employees earning:
$64,200 – $99,999 – 9%
$100,000 – $990,000 – 8.5%
The announcement ignored the fact that the maximum for the highest salary scale (Grade 14) was officially gazetted at $715,802.
What allowances were increased were in respect of the lower grade employees which were overdue for decades anyhow:
 Station Allowance
 Hinterland Allowance
 Risk Allowance
 Uniform Allowance
which would apply only minimally to more senior Public Servants, whose other conditions of employment have never been publicised over the years (except for leave) and presumably would have been applicable on a grade by grade basis.
Hopefully the above throws some light on the much discussed issue of compensation management in the Public Service and related Public Sector Agencies.

E.B. John

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