Adjustments are not uniform across the board but are made according to individual scheme needs

April 9, 2007
AsiaOne

The revision of the civil service pay will not be across-the-board but will be adjusted according to the needs of the individual schemes and linked to performance.

Mr Teo Chee Hean, Minister in Charge of the Civil Service, said where the salaries are severely lagging the market, and there are high attrition rates, larger adjustments will be made.

"Where the lag is smaller, we will make smaller adjustments. Some schemes have been reviewed recently, and already being paid close to market salaries," he explained in Parliament today on how the civil service salary will be adjusted to narrow the gap with the private sector.

Mr Teo said the last major salary revision for the Civil Service was in 2000. During the recession years, civil servants had to take a pay cut and this was only restored recently in 2005.

Although there were adjustments in recent years, he said specific schemes had fallen behind their benchmarks.

For the latest review, the government has taken a comprehensive look at all the schemes, assessed the attrition rates and wage levels relative to their respective market comparisons, and identified the underlying issues affecting the schemes.

Mr Teo, who is Defence Minsiter, said the revision is to bring salary structures more in line with the government's philosophy of linking pay to performance.

Many of the adjustments will not be in the monthly salaries but in the form of performance-related payment.

"Only those civil servants who have performed beyond the satisfactory level will receive this performance-based payment, with those performing very well receiving a higher amount," said the minister.

"These payments allow us to close wage gaps quickly this year. For subsequent years, these payments are likely to be incorporated to the performance bonus structure of the officers, if the market salary levels are sustained, so that those who are consistently good performers will continue to enjoy the higher salaries.

"For schemes which are lagging severely behind the market, we would have to adjust both monthly salaries and annual components in order to close the gap."

Mr Teo acknowledged that salaries alone are not the panacea to our problems. Other factors should include whole career proposition, such as sense of purpose, job scope, interesting assignments, exciting career prospects and developmental opportunities, so that a career in the civil service would remain attractive not just to young people fresh out of school, but also to serving officers, he said.

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