Treasury grasps straws as Parliament staff demand pay hike
From the look of things, it never rains, but pours for Treasury as at the time it is agonising over how to meet salary hike demands by Judiciary support staff currently on strike, Parliament secretariat employees also want an increase in their salaries.
Both Judiciary support staff and Parliament secretariat employees are using the average 45 percent increment offered to civil servants as the yardstick for their demands.
But, despite the demands, there are indications that the proposed increments as demanded by the two other arms of government—the Legislature and the Judiciary—may not be approved because government plans to rationalise the salaries by not effecting increases to non-mainstream civil servants.
Acting Clerk of Parliament Roosevelt Gondwe yesterday told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the President had authorised the review of conditions of service for National Assembly staff.
He said: “I have also been advised by the Department of Human Resource Management and Development [DHRMD] that Parliament staff can get 24 percent just like other civil servants.”
But later, Gondwe clarified that the approval was pending approval from Treasury with which he would initiate discussions.
He admitted that he informed Parliament staff union that they could not ask for 45 percent because even after civil servants received large increments, their salaries were still lower than those of Parliament staff.
On concerns from PAC that conditions of service for Parliament staff have not been reviewed for a long time and that promotions have been scarce, resulting in frustration and some staff leaving, Gondwe said: “Government has no problem [with review]. Our hope is that with that, staff which has remained stagnant might remain, but will be promoted.”
But Treasury spokesperson Nations Msowoya said it was not automatic that the proposed increment would be implemented.
“For purposes of budget management, DHRMD will have to liase with us whether it is feasible. As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any increase of salaries for staff [at Parliament]. As part of budget management, we are supposed to be consulted,” he said.
Government has been trying to harmonise salaries across the civil service, but it has not been successful.
A document we have seen shows that before the July 1 2014 increase, in P4 grade (deputy director or deputy principal secretary), a civil servant in the general civil service gets a minimum K288 052 while an employee on a similar grade at the Law Commission gets K768 758; K553 928 at the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), K557 888 at the Judiciary and K510 534 at the National Assembly.
At PO, whose entry point is a degree, a general civil servant is expected to get a minimum K75 190, but the same grade civil servant at Law Commission will get K196 934, about K171 189 at MHRC and about K175 242 at the Malawi Electoral Commission.
Meanwhile, Judiciary staff remain on strike as talks between the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and Judicial Service Commission have not been concluded after government presented its position on the proposed 45 percent increase.
