21-member Pay Commission to work out wage structure for public/private sectors
View(s):A 21-member national pay commission has been appointed, for the first time, to formulate a national policy on wages of employees applicable to both the public and private sectors.
The commission has been appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to devise this national policy and settle salary anomalies of employees, government officials said adding that the relevant gazette notification was issued on November 9.
The appointment of the commission, which is a 2013 budget proposal and should have happened soon after November 2012, was delayed due to unknown reasons.
The Business Times highlighted this issue on August 11. The president has appointed Neville Piyadigama and Wimalasena Dissanayake as its Co-Chairmen and Bandulasiri Wijayaratne as its Secretary.
A senior official of the Finance Ministry said the government had taken this decision since such a necessity had arisen due to massive discrepancies prevailing in the salary scales between the public and private sectors.
There are more than 1.4 million public servants and their salary bill is Rs. 366 billion
The salary scales of the public sector would be updated to match with the modern conditions and the commission will provide guidance to the private sector to devise salary scales for the employees, he added.
Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera who was very keen in introducing the national policy on wages has issued directives to relevant officials to find the possibility of introducing far reaching reforms in payment of wages, he added.
Anton Marcus, General Secretary of the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ&GSEU) told the Business Times that he had brought to the notice of the Treasury Secretary that independent trade union representation is also a must for the commission.
He told the Business Times that this commission is composed of political appointees and there was a serious credibility issue in recommendations made by such a commission.
The scope of the commission is very wide and therefore it will take a long time to conclude its deliberations and make recommendations as the government has failed to impose a specific time frame to conclude its activities, he revealed.
Mr. Marcus said that the government should intervene in devising salary scales of private sector employees as there is a huge disparity between the wages of public and private sector workers.
Private sector employers were of the view that the salaries of workers should be determined in accordance with market forces but this is not valid today, he said adding that the difference between the wages of public and private sector workers was around Rs. 10,000.