More pain for civil servants as SRC freezes pay review for two years

SRC Chairperson Lynn Mengich. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Public servants will be forced to sit tight and dig deeper into their pockets for the next two years.

This is after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) announced Thursday that it would not be reviewing basic salary structures, allowances, and benefits for civil servants in the financial year 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.

SRC in a press statement said the decision was arrived at following recommendations by the National Treasury, citing tough economic times and constraints to the budget occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The National Treasury advised the Commission to consider postponing the review for the next two fiscal years until the economy improves, due to the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of the revenue and the expected slow economic recovery,” SRC said.

The Commission has also resolved that salary adjustments for public servants will continue to be applied within the current budget allocation.

No additional funding will be provided for the implementation of job evaluation results in the next two fiscal years.

It however added that “Public sector institutions may implement job evaluation results, by placing jobs in their rightful job evaluation grading, within the existing salary structures and approved budgets.”

The recommendations are subject to review after the two fiscal years and based on the State of the economy.

“The National Treasury will review the performance of the economy and advise SRC as/and when the review can be done based on the prevailing circumstances to ensure affordability and fiscal sustainability,” the commission noted in its Third Public Sector Remuneration Cycle.

SRC said the salary and benefits review has been prompted by outcomes of the job evaluation and grading, labour market salary surveys, and a review of the current salary structures in the public sector.

As such, civil servants will continue to bear the brunt, considering that the government also rejected their Sh68 billion request to finance salaries increment and allowances beginning next month.

The Standard reported that the National Treasury had written to SRC in March this year, turning down the request that would have made available money to fund the next phase of pay reviews.

Details showed that SRC had requested the money to harmonise workers’ pay and effect new salary raises once the job evaluation is completed.

Economy projection

But things may be looking up, going by the economic projections by the National Treasury.

Kenya’s economy is projected to recover and grow to around 6.6 per cent in 2021, supported by ongoing investments of the government under the Big Four Agenda, and implementation of the economic recovery strategy.