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Amid threat of strikes, Finance Ministry proposes pay hikes
The Finance Ministry will submit proposals to increase salaries of a range of sectors including the administrative sector in view of multiple strikes and work-to-rule campaigns, but the proposals, if implemented, will cost the Government an additional Rs 200 billion annually.
A senior Treasury official said the proposals will be submitted to the Cabinet next week to decide on the increases which also apply to doctors, engineers, teachers and non-academic university staff.
The proposal is being introduced ahead of government executive service officers threatening to resume their trade union action on Wednesday, if the government fails to approve the salary increases. Other trade union groups also have threatened to resume strikes.
The Treasury official said some of the pay-hike demands had been met, as salaries of some of the sectors had been increased on an ad hoc basis previously.
He said the Government’s current annual public sector salary and pension bill amounted to Rs 735 billion which would rise to Rs 940 billion if approval was granted.
“We are issuing Treasury Bills and Bonds every month to balance the payment of salaries of the public sector,” he said. “It is upto the Cabinet to decide on the proposed increase or study the impact of the proposed increase and take a decision.”
A series of anomalies of public sector salaries have created a disparity in some of the sectors. According to the 2019 salary structure, a newly recruited grade III administrative service sector officer is entitled Rs 55,979 as the salary and allowances, but a university labourer is entitled to Rs 57,536 as the starting salary and a newly recruited policeman Rs 60,227.
Salaries and Cadres Commission Chairman S. Rannuge told the Sunday Times salary anomalies existed in several sectors including the Attorney General’s Department, the administrative sector, boards and corporations as some of the salary increases had been granted through cabinet approval without consulting the Commission.
“Even on the current issues, the President or the Government has not even sought our observations,” he said.