Public sector salaries to be increased from January

As per the recommendation of the Special Commission on reviewing salaries of the public sector appointed by the President, the monthly salary of all public servants are to be increased by a minimum amount of Rs.3000 and a maximum of Rs.24,000 per month effective from January 2020, the Finance Ministry says.

Issuing a media release today (26), the Ministry said the increment is in addition to the salary increment which was granted up to 107 percent by 2020 comparing to the basic salary that prevailed in 2015.

As a result of this new salary increment, salary anomalies that existed in different sectors of the Public Service will be removed, the Finance Ministry said.

President Maithripala Sirisena appointed a 15-Member Salary Review Commission headed by S. Ranugge to make recommendations to remove the salary anomalies in the Public Sector. The Commission comprised K.L.L. Wijeratne, T.P. Collure, C.P. Siriwardene, Sudharma Karunaratne, Janaka Sugathadasa, Dharani S. Wijethilake, Lalith R.de Silva, G.S. Edirisinghe, A.R. Deshapriya, B.P.P.S. Abeygunarathne, Dr Palitha Abeykoon, P. Thangamayil, S.D. Jayakody and M.C. Wickramasekara.

As a result, the salary of all Public workers will be further increased from January 2020 and, especially the salary anomalies that were reported to be in certain public sector organizations inclusive of the Railway and the Postal services will be removed, the release read further.

In order to remove the anomalies in the Railway Department, a new salary scale as TL with an initial monthly salary of Rs 36,095 has been created for Railway Supervisory Management Service. The Salary scale MT 1 has been placed under the initial salary step of Rs 34,415 for Railway Engine Driver Aide. Hence, it is unnecessary for railway workers to continue the ongoing trade union action demanding a solution to their salary anomalies.

As per the earlier salary proposals under PA Circular 3/2006, the minimum basic salary of a Primary Level Public Servant will be increased to Rs.24,250 by 2020 from Rs.11,730 in 2015. Under the recommendations of the Ranugge Salary Commission, this will be further increased by Rs.3000 to Rs.27,250 per month.

Comparing to this salary increment, the Over Time Allowance for nearly 1.1 million public servants will also be increased, the Finance Ministry said. In addition, as all these salary increments are added to the basic salary, all employees in the Public Sector will be privileged to claim a higher amount of Disaster loans and Property loans as these are calculated based on the basic salary.

Rs.562 billion was paid as Public Sector Salaries in 2015 and, it has increased up to Rs.750 billion to date. The payment of pension which cost Rs.157 billion in 2015 has now increased up to Rs.225 billion. The Government has decided to pay this increased new salary in two equal installments from January 2020 and January 2021. It will cost an additional amount of Rs. 120billion per year.

In the meantime 75,000 new employees have been recruited to the Public Service over the last 4 years, the Finance Ministry said further.

(Government News Portal)