“New Presidential Salaries Commission”
I refer to the story in last week’s Business Times under the above headline and applaud the steps taken by the President to correct the existing salary anomalies that are prevalent in the public sector. It is no secret that in the public sector remuneration packages are far lower than in the private sector. In addition, we do not get the high-levels of fringe benefits and other performance-related ‘perks’ enjoyed by those in the private sector.This however, does not mean that there are no committed or hardworking employees in the public sector, But due to the way public organisations are structured with a very high level of management hierarchy, employees at especially lower levels, and generally in the public service suffer from poor pay and benefits that do not reflect their commitment to the organisation, qualifications and/or experience.
It is precisely these reasons that demotivate staff of government entities to perform poorly vis-a-vis their private sector counterparts. As a public servant my fervent hope is that such Commissions can and should get to the bottom of the salary anomalies issue and structure the pay and benefit packages to reflect the persons qualifications and experience rather than on ad-hoc ‘Salary Scales’, a method which is outdated and is prone to inflationary pressure. I believe that to some extent this is reflected in ethical private sector organisations in Sri Lanka and the world-over, that show a genuine concern for the well-being of their employees. Others as I understand exist on exploiting their staff members-their junior staff in particular-until they themselves leave the organisation in disgust.
Wish the Salaries Commission all success in their quest to find a just solution to the salary anomalies present in the public sector.
Concerned Public Sector
Employee (Junior Officer)
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