The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has announced the good news to all civil servants in the country. The commission has ordered all public institutions to submit their data on all allowances paid to their employees.
SRC chairperson said that this move is intended to harmonize allowances paid to the civil servants in all public institutions.
According to the commission, the monthly allowances of employees in various public sectors are diverse and need to harmonize allowances.
The proportion of allowances paid to all public servants to gross salary can vary between 43 per cent and259 per cent.
The contribution of pension from the civil servants working in different sectors is based on the basic salary and therefore workers in different public sectors with the same job grade could be treated differently. This is the main reason why SRC is seeking to harmonize the allowances of all civil servants.
According to the report from SRC, of the total Ksh 795 billion wage bill that was paid in the financial year 2019/2020, Ksh 325 billion comprised of allowances while the pension cost was at Ksh 70 billion.
The commission has now released guidelines that will see all allowances paid by public institutions reviewed.
SRC has been working around the clock to achieve fair remuneration for all public servants at the county and national government.
The outcome of the review of the allowances will be relayed to stakeholders in due course.
See also TSC Announces 21 Specialization Vacancies; Check Details and How To Apply The SRC guidelines state that no public institution will be allowed to pay higher amounts in allowances based on their ability to pay. All duplicate allowances will be scrapped while allowances will not form the basis for calculating pension contributions.
Further, the guidelines stated that Job-related allowances such as extraneous allowances, responsibility allowances, and special responsibility allowances will eventually be scrapped and the amounts shall ve converted to the worth of a job instead.
On the other hand, the SRC chair assured all the civil servants that no exciting public sector employee will lose their gross pay.
According to SRC, all public servants’ allowance will fall in the broad categories as follows; house allowance, commuter allowance, task-related allowance for those carrying out responsibilities outside their scope.
SRC also passed a stern warning to county governors, MCAs and their speakers against awarding themselves retirement benefits through a draft bill submitted to all county assemblies which proposes that they shall be awarded a lump sum payment and lifetime pension and maintenance at the cost of the counties.