The Bill providing for the salary review and increment for public service workers is to be tabled to the National Assembly for approval early next year.
The 10 percent salary increase which is scheduled to take effect as from April 1, 2023 will cost government R171.9 million, representing 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
As announced by Minister Naadir Hassan during the budget address, government has decided to consolidate four allowances into the basic salary, namely, the 5 percent supplementation introduced in 2019, marketable skills allowance, graduate allowance and performance allowance.
The new consolidated salary is what is to be increased by 10 percent. With this consolidation, the lowest salary in government will increase from R5,485 to R7,343 (Band 1, step 1).
Furthermore, salaries are to be mapped to the closest salary on the newly-proposed salary grid.
Deputy Comptroller of the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade Astrid Tamatave, said in conducting the exercise, some employees’ increase would be below R1000, but government has decided that the minimum increase should be R1000.
As announced in the budget, a driver who is currently receiving a basic salary of R6325, a supplementation allowance of R316.25, bringing the total to R6641.25 per month, when consolidated and mapped on the new grid, will receive R7641.25 as basic salary.
A graduate who is currently receiving R9887 as basic salary, with a 5 percent supplementation allowance at R494.25, a marketable skills allowance of R1400 and a graduate allowance of R5000 which brings the total to R16,781.35, with the 10 percent and mapping on the grid will receive R18,662.43 as basic salary.
The review will also see the introduction of a new public service salary table, comprising only 12 bands, with 15 steps, instead of the 20 provided for by the current table, explained deputy Comptroller of the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade Astrid Tamatave during a press briefing yesterday.
The highest salary proposed by the new table is for Band 12 step 1 with a basic salary of R87,893, for which no public servant currently qualifies. As for Band 11, step 1, the basic salary is at R70,137, for which 11 employees qualify. It was clarified that Band 11, step 1 employees are mainly medical personnel with highly-specialised skills.
Constitutional appointees are not considered and included in the table.
Chief secretary of the Public Service Bureau (PSB), Shella Mohideen, noted that the decision to consolidate the allowance is to the advantage of employees, and will address complaints commonly raised in the past such as difficulties in being considered for loans from banking institutions due to low basic salaries.
Ms Mohideen further highlighted government’s increasing focus on productivity and progression based on performance, as opposed to duration of employment in an institution, calling on all employees to count the review as a motivating factor.
“We are just emerging from an economic crisis, and we have made a lot of sacrifices, such as not making any new appointments which were not critical this year. As a government, we have discussed and decided to give what we can for the time being, and to give all public service employees the increment,” she said.
“What we are doing is to make the government more performing. As facilitators of the private sector, if we are doing our jobs better, the private sector will also perform better which will result in economic benefits,” Ms Mohideen pointed out.
A total budget of R3.44 billion, representing 11.3 percent of GDP is the total amount budgeted to cover wages and salaries in 2023.
The current Public Service Salary table implemented by government was implemented in April 2014 through the Public Service Salary Act 2013. It comprises 20 rows, known as bands, and 15 columns, referred to as steps and the salaries on the table are in ascending hierarchical order, from Step 1 of band 1, to step 15 of band 20.
A specific matrix was used to allocate percentage increases in salaries from one step to another through the table while ensuring that the salary on step 1 of band 20 does not exceed 20 times the corresponding salary on step 1 of band 1.
The Act was supposed to be reviewed at least once every 5 years, and in 2019 government gave a 5 percent supplementation on allowances for all government employees. On average, 57 percent of the total monthly salaries comprises the basic pay, while 43 percent is total allowances under the present law.
Also present for the briefing was director general of the PSB, Michelle Fock-Yune.
Source: Seychelles Nation
