The Salaries and Remuneration Commission yesterday released the first job evaluation results. They evaluated 228 public institutions, involving 40,298 jobs.
The results indicated counties have the highest number of skilled employees at 57 per cent, who were graded under Band C that categorises supervisors and high-level skilled officers, such as senior principal officers, assistant secretaries and deputy directors.
Some 11,592 county employees fell under this group.
Teachers were the worse off lot in the civil service, where 30 per cent ( 90,000 ) of those in Job Group G were graded under Band B that categorises officers with low-level supervisory skills, such as interns, drivers and artisans.
Ninety-three jobs were evaluated in the teaching service, in which the SRC also introduced new level of career path, where teachers in administration will be absorbed in Band D.
Band D recognises servants with senior and middle-level management skills such as heads of departments and sectional heads.
Speaking during the release of the results at the KICC, commission chairperson Sarah Serem said the results will address problems that have been the cause of numerous strikes. “The impact of such strikes is not only costly to the economy, but a big let down to the taxpayers’, who rightly expect quality services,” Serem said. “It will also break the circle of public servants, moving from one government department to the other because of pay.”
Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua said the new grading system will enable the national and county governments budget better for public servants’ salaries.
“As a government, we expect the commission to ensure the expenditure on government wage bill is affordable and fiscally sustainable,” Kinyua said. He said the current wage bill of both levels of government exceeds the Public Finance Management ACT 2004 ceiling.”
“This is not good as it makes it difficult to achieve the national goals set under Vision 2030.” Kinyua urged sectors to support the implementation of the new grading and salary structure to bring down the wage bill.
The evaluation started in June 2015 after being launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
It sought to attain a harmonised grading structure and eliminate remuneration and benefits disparities in the public service. Results for the disciplined forces, public universities and research and tertiary education institutions are yet to be completed.