Ministry liaising with unions regarding log of claims
THE Ministry of Civil Service is liaising with worker unions about issues surrounding their pending log of claims.
Ministry of Civil Service permanent secretary Parmesh Chand said the unions had regularly reminded the ministry about the log of claims.
“Immediately, we also have to address the log of claims which have remained on our table for a long time,” he said.
He added that any conversation on salary increments will need to go through the proper process.
“There was a dilemma whether it will be performance linked or is it linked to just cost of living adjustment. Now that we have got a fair idea of what those claims are and what the actual situation is on the ground, we should be able to, more constructively, discuss this with the worker representatives and come to some solution and feed into the budget process.
“I don’t want to inflate the expectations of my fellow civil servants, but this is the right time for us to be thinking about it. To know that we’re talking about the budget for 2024/2025, any inputs on salary adjustments, we’ll have to go through that process.”
Mr Chand added they were not only thinking about salary, but also the health and wellbeing of workers.
These include talks about the restoration of health in terms of life insurance and health cover.
“We have got proposals from various providers. And we are doing analysis on that. We are in consultations on that to see what the government can viably afford in this area, because the health and wellbeing of workers is very important.
“We have started a number of initiatives such as wellness day, largely Wednesdays are wellness days, and then we have just released our guide to healthy catering in the civil service.
“We will also be going into the Civil Service Day to promote wellness and collegiality. Collegiality, meaning civil service, is all about acting like a family and moving together, leaving nobody behind.
“So there’s a lot of work happening other than the salary review.”