Public sector remuneration

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. Theodore Roosevelt.

One of the recommendations from the Constitution Review Commission was that all public sector employees, from the President through Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, the judiciary to labourers, that is all those remunerated from the Consolidated Fund, must be placed on the Single Spine Salary. They must all have common conditions of service, except for exceptional circumstances.

It is imperative that we work towards implementing the suggestion as a first step towards ensuring a uniform salary structure and conditions of service policy. We should avoid the situation where because of the strategic nature of their profession some public sector workers bargain outside the mainstream public sector employee’s remuneration policy. For instance, all public sector employees should be provided housing, transport and clothing allowances.

What it means is that based on the consolidation of allowances into the basic salary for the purpose of pension contributions, such allowances which were consolidated and are no longer available to most public sector employees, must not be paid to any other category of persons for as long as they are paid from the Consolidated Fund.

In that case, and possibly apart from the President, all others in the employment of the state, who are provided accommodation and transport by the employer, must be made to pay a percentage of their salary as rent whilst those living on their own are paid a similar percentage as rent allowance. The fact is that all employees of the state need to be accommodated and transported to and from their places of work. The difference must be in the level of remuneration but the conditions must be the same.

Factors such as the number of hours that individuals have to spend on the work must be isolated and dealt with within the same principle. For instance, when individuals are enjoined to work more than the universally accepted levels of 40 hours per week, those who consistently work extra hours are remunerated, based on certain conditions. No one begrudges those who justifiably earn such extra income based on their base pay. Such conditions are well established such that they do not excite anger.

It is equally imperative that institutions of state set up to ensure sanity at the industrial front exercise their responsibilities such that there will be little friction. We need industrial harmony to improve productivity and production generally.

Another thing, the time has come for us to agree on the conditions for industrial action, which means that we must have guidelines for embarking on strikes, such that where it is the fault of the employer, in our case the government, which failed to execute its obligations, then the workers must be paid fully for the period that they withdrew their services. On the other hand if the workers did not follow due process, then they should not be paid for the period that they withdrew their services and pay for any losses that might have been occasioned by the withdrawal of their services.

Whilst we have different competencies and skills, for as long as we work for the state, there must be equity in the levels of remuneration and general conditions of service. The fact is that the spate of agitations for improved conditions of service stem from the fact that there is discrimination in the remuneration packages of those employed by the state, and politicians because they take the decisions, appear to be more favourably treated than other category of public sector employees.

In the present situation of the partial strike embarked upon by some public sector health workers, there is the urgent need for all parties to sustain negotiations and resolve matters such that the ordinary citizens will not suffer. As the adage goes, when two elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers. This is not the time for the blame game or name calling. It is in our collective interest to encourage the health professionals to resume work, rather than project them as vampires, who must be exposed to public ridicule and contempt.

The time has come for the public to know the conditions of service of all categories of employees working for the state. That does not necessarily mean the public will know the actual earnings of each worker, but we will know the facilities we have made available to those who offer to serve us in public service, politics and governance. The Consolidated Fund belongs to all of us.

If we want to develop a permanent solution to the perennial agitations for improved conditions of service, then we must carefully examine the recommendation to have common conditions of service for all public sector employees paid from the Consolidated Fund.