Delivered: Director of Communications Latrae Rahming
Yesterday, over 17,000 civil servants received their salary review adjustments. This fulfils the Prime Minister’s commitment that the payments would be made before Christmas.
The purpose of this exercise was to close the gap between salaries in the public service to the quasi public sector.
The total amount of this payment annualized is $20 million and over the last four years this administration has provided over $60 million in salary adjustments for public officers.
The salary component of the Government budget grown fastest over the last four years as the Government invest in its greatest resource its employees.
In the 2024–2025 Budget Communication, the Prime Minister announced the salary review for senior public officers. This was a complex undertaking, so it was planned to be executed over multiple budget cycles. In doing this exercise, care was taken to ensure that all industrial agreements which were in place with public service unions were honoured and promotion exercises continued as normal.
Outside of a union negotiated wage increase this is the first Government initiated salary review exercise in over 20 years.
Questions have been raised with respect to the size and the timing of the pay-outs. However, these questions can’t be answered in isolation. To properly understand the Government’s commitment to equity within the public sector, salary adjustments over the last four years have to be considered as well as the objectives of this exercise.
With respect to the latter point a decision was a made to start with senior and middle managers as they had the widest discrepancy with respect to salaries with the quasi public sector. On a percentage basis the lower level staff benefitted the most from the increases as fixed increments were provided.
For example, a employee in the M6 scale who was making minimum wage in January 2022 would have experience an increase in salary of 27.5% since through wage adjustments, excluding increments.
For a trained teacher, the increase would be 19.8%. In addition, this latest increase of $1,400 would be equivalent to the largest annual increase given to any trained teacher in the BUT’s latest industrial agreement.
For a Deputy Permanent Secretary, a middle manager, they would have experience an increase of 15.8%.
Now let me speak to the Prime Minister’s wider record.
Since 2021, civil servants have received a salary increase every single year under this administration.
That level of consistency has not been seen in more than a decade.
Teachers and nurses received upgraded salaries, higher allowances, expanded insurance, and retention bonuses.
Police, Defence Force, and Corrections officers received better entry-level rates, improved allowances, and fairer overtime and duty systems.
Line staff and administrative staff received higher scales, increased allowances, and restored increments.
Thousands of long-overdue promotions and confirmations were completed.
Many contract workers gained permanent posts for the first time, with full benefits.
Pensioners received an uplift after years without movement.
Insurance coverage was expanded for public officers.
And the national minimum wage was increased for the first time in seven years.
More than fifty-nine labour agreements were concluded, ending years of expired contracts and bringing stability across the service.
I also want to make this point clear:
The salary review does not apply to quasi-government corporations. Their salary structures are already higher than the general public service, and they operate under separate compensation frameworks.
This review focused on correcting the pay system for government employees whose scales had fallen behind for many years.
All of this prepared the way for the National Salary Review —the first full modernization of public service pay in fourteen years.
With the final group updated yesterday, every officer in the public service is now in the new structure.
Every officer has received an increase. Every officer has received the retroactive amount owed.
These improvements did not happen by chance. They were the result of steady work, responsible budgeting, and a commitment to fairness.
I invite the public to look at these facts and see that this administration has done a great deal for public servants, while knowing there is more work ahead.
Thank you.