SRC, lawmakers to ‘thrash out’ public wage policy Monday

The commission has drafted a policy following country-wide public hearings and meetings with stakeholders/FILE

The commission has drafted a policy following country-wide public hearings and meetings with stakeholders.

READ: SRC kicks off public wage bill debate in counties

According to the commission’s communications officer, Ali Chege, SRC is also in the process of drafting legislation in consultation with Kenya Law Reform Commission and the office of the Attorney General to guide the implementation of the policy.

It would however require Parliament’s endorsement, hence the move to involve the legislators from the ground up.

The policy is intended to rein in the runaway public wage bill that currently stands at 12 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; the internationally accepted standard being seven percent.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has supported the formulation of the policy and during the Labour Day celebration said pay should reflect productivity.

READ: Uhuru announces 12pc pay increase for workers

A public wage policy, he has also argued, would free up more funds for development as well as attract and retain top talent in the public sector.

READ: Uhuru to lead talks on public wage bill

And to lead from the front, President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto took a 20 percent pay cut with Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries agreeing to a 10 percent reduction in their pay.

READ: Uhuru, Ruto lead Cabinet in rare pay cut

President Kenyatta also demanded that parastatal chiefs take a 20 percent pay cut or, “look for employment where they can pay you that amount of money.”

In order to base public sector pay on productivity, the SRC contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to carry out job evaluations in the public sector.

Evaluations that have encountered some resistance from public school teachers and health workers who fault the SRC directive barring the entering into of Collective Bargaining Agreements pending the conclusion of the evaluation exercise.

READ: Nurses want redundant SRC disbanded

About The Author

OLIVE BURROWS

With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.

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