Government employees missed out on possible salary rises between July and December last year because there was no fully constituted Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to approve requests for pay reviews.
A latest review by the SRC shows that it did not act on the 174 requests for Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), salary reviews, allowances, and benefits that government and county entities made in the period.
Seven SRC commissioners including former chair Lyn Mengich exited in September last year following the lapse of their tenure, denying the commission quorum needed to make decisions on key issues such as salary increments and CBA reviews.
Entities at the national and county government submitted 101 requests on salary and job evaluation reviews between July and December, as they sought to enhance the take-home of their staff amid harsh economic times.
“In the absence of the fully constituted Commission, no request was determined and therefore the value for SRC advice was not computed for the period under review,” SRC says in the report.
SRC has 10 commissioners meaning that the three who remained from September last year could not approve or reject requests for salary hikes, due to lack of quorum. The vacancies were however filled in January this year setting the stage for a fully constituted SRC to review the requests.
“The requests received form the in-tray of the matters awaiting the constitution of the new Commission”.
However, the government has in the past backdated salary increments that were delayed due to a range of factors notably legal hitches and lack of funds, meaning that the employees have not completely lost out on the requests made between July and December last year.
Workers attached to offices at the national and county governments have increasingly pushed for salary hikes saying that they need to be cushioned against the rising cost of living.
SRC received a further 50 requests for review of allowances and benefits, 19 for CBAs, and four for productivity and performance between July and December last year.
The requests submitted were more than the 88 worth Sh10.35 billion that entities from the national and county governments submitted to SRC in the first quarter (July-September 2024) of the current financial year.
Successful requests for salary reviews, CBAs, and allowances highlight the good times for public servants, unlike their private sector counterparts battling stagnated salaries.
Out of the 88 requests that SRC received in the first quarter of the current financial year, the commission boosted the monthly pay of public servants by approving requests worth Sh6.5 billion.
But pay reviews are a growing concern to the Exchequer due to the ballooning wage bill of the public sector. The increase in the wage bill coupled with debt payments significantly eats into cash available to fund development projects and create employment.
The public wage bill crossed the Sh1 trillion mark in the year that ended June 2023, from Sh842.9 billion in the 2017/18 year.
