Job evaluation to cut down public wage bill Serem

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has embarked on a job evaluation process for all staff working for county governments.

According to SRC boss Sarah Serem the exercise will identify gaps in staffing for county governments.

Serem says challenges of delayed salaries and discharge of health functions by counties  are symptoms of teething problems which will be overcome once counties fix human resource management.

Serem spoke at Uasin Gishu County Assembly where she had paid a courtesy call to Uasin Gishu speaker Isaac Terer.

The SRC team is also visiting other counties in the north Rift as they roll out the nationwide exercise.

Several counties are experiencing staff unrest over delayed salaries and health sector issues.

The SRC is currently carrying out a job evaluation process of all employees of state corporations.

In March, the SRC had assured employees of state corporations that the job evaluation exercise will not lead to retrenchment.

Covering job disparities

Serem stated that the commission is only keen on determining the professional worth of workers in different job cadres of the civil service, a process which was set to be completed within eight months.

State corporations that are commercial oriented had expressed concern that their quest to attract highly competitive and skilled personnel may be affected by the job evaluation exercise.

The evaluation will cover job disparities as well as unequal remuneration.

In January, the SRC dampened teachers’ hopes for a pay deal following a declaration that it had told the public sector to temporarily halt all basic salary negotiations and reviews until the ongoing job evaluation is completed.

In a statement, the SRC  explained that if the demand for salary increase by public officers was to be effected and harmonized, an additional 255 billion shillings will be required to bringing the total wage bill to over 823 shillings billion or about 90 percent country’s revenue.

SRC stated that any imbalance between expenditure and revenue would result in unsustainable deficit financing and increased taxation.