The Public Service Commission has proposed putting all civil servants onto three-year renewable contracts (see P4-5).
This will modernise public employment. Working for the government was historically 'permanent and pensionable'. The individual had job security but government had trouble getting all its employees to work hard.
Incompetent or corrupt officers just had to be moved sideways where they would do less damage. Government also built up huge pension obligations.
The private sector all over the world has moved in the same direction. Employees no longer have a job for life with a guaranteed pension.
However, contracts make employees disposable. How can their interests be protected?
Government needs to arrange a pension scheme with a private insurance company. Payments can be made into the individual's pot while he or she is employed. The final responsibility for his or her pension will then rest with the insurance company, not the government.
Other than that, civil servants will just have to make themselves indispensable so that their appraisals are consistently positive and their contracts are renewed every three years.
Quote of the day:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction"
Blaise Pascal
The French mathematician was born on June 19, 1623.
