State begins review of workers’ salaries

University Academic Staff Union leaders and members hold a protest during a strike to push for salary hike. [David Gichuru, Standard]

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has begun reviewing terms of service for staff working in State corporations.

A nine-member task-force has been formed to review the terms for chairpersons, chief executive officers, chancellors and vice chancellors of public universities, board members, management and unionisable staff of State corporations.

The team that was gazetted last week will be chaired by Jane Chege. Its members are Wanjiku Wakogi, Philip Nyingi, Vincent Nyangilo, Simon Indimuli, Jacqueline Manani, William Migwi and Maina Weru.

The task-force has two months from the date of gazettement to submit its report to PSC, making recommendations on, among others, categorisation of State corporations.

Salary bands

The team has also been tasked with reviewing the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) job evaluation for State corporations and recommendation of appropriate salary bands for CEOs.

It will also review allowances and benefits enjoyed by chairpersons and board members and recommend reasonable terms of service, taking into account the nature of engagement.

Yesterday, PSC chairman Stephen Kirogo said the commission was undertaking the exercise after 15 years.

“Our reference is that the exercise was done in 2004. After 15 years, a review will be necessary to make our recommendations to SRC,” Kirogo told The Standard.  

The PSC chair said the task-force would also consider input from members of the public in line with the constitutional requirement for public participation before any policy is adopted.

“The review will address issues such as cost of living and determine whether what is being paid is compensative enough. I will not want to preempt or speculate on a proposal for a pay rise and would rather we wait for the report,” he said.

In January last year, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich announced an 87.5 per cent increment in allowances paid to parastatal chairpersons and board members.

Mr Rotich directed that chairpersons, who had been earning honoraria at a flat rate of Sh80,000 per month since July 2005, be paid between Sh100,000 and Sh150,000 beginning July 1, last year, in line with SRC job evaluation report. However, many corporations are yet to implement the new structure.

The task-force has been mandated to look at the proposed pay structure for the board members and chairpersons and also re-categorise State corporations.  

Currently, the entities are categorised into eight groups, namely financial, commercial/manufacturing, regulatory, public universities, training and research, service, regional development authorities and tertiary/educational institutions.

Civil servants have often complained of huge discrepancies in basic salaries and allowances which has been attributed to the categorisation. According to the PSC chair, the review will determine whether the civil servants will get an increment on salaries and benefits.

Fresh categorisation

“The study will determine the fresh categorisation and also recommend on harmonisation of terms and conditions of service so that persons doing the same job can be at par,” Kirogo added.

In 2016, SRC carried a job evaluation for service and regulatory State corporations. The evaluation was undertaken by Deloitte and Touché consulting firm in 95 of 102 State corporations. Up to 8,349 jobs were evaluated.

The review revealed that there was no standardised grading structure for the State corporations.

It also established a misalignment of jobs in the organisation structure, job descriptions and reporting lines; lack of, or poor quality job descriptions; overlaps and duplication of roles in institutions and across departments, and lack of a standardised competency framework.

All roles in 47 of 51 institutions were evaluated in commercial and strategic State corporations totaling 5,723 jobs.

“The completion of a job evaluation is not an automatic implication that the salaries on the roles identified shall be adjusted. Job evaluation, however, ensures that the jobs are properly placed within an organisation (intrinsic relativity). External relativity will require a review of salary that is dependent on several factors, key of which are affordability and sustainability,” stated the SRC report.