Three months after the civil service pay revision, the finance ministry finally announced the pay revision for the regular employees of the State-Owned Enterprises yesterday. The revision is in effect from the start of this month. According to the finance minister, the employees of State-Owned Enterprises will continue to get their leave encashment and Leave Travel Concession, LTC in accordance with the respective organisation’s service rule.
According to the finance ministry’s notification, the pay and allowances for corporate employees have been revised between 46 to 72 per cent.
The confusion, though, is in the increment percentage for different grades. While most SOE employees are of the impression that higher-grade employees should receive a smaller percentage increase in their salaries compared to lower-grade employees, the increment percentage in this revision is inconsistent. For instance, the increment for corporate grade 18 is more than those in grade 19 which many said should be the other way round.
The finance minister said that this is to make the salaries of the SoE employees at par with civil servants. Civil servants were given their salary revision between 55 to 74 per cent starting July this year.
Finance Minister, Namgay Tshering said, “the whole principle is to ensure that SOE employees are not getting worse off as compared to civil servants. For civil servants, we raised from 55 to 74 per cent. Before, the difference in basic pay between civil servants and corporate employees was 5 to 8 per cent. Now with this revision, just to ensure that the difference is maintained consistently, there is variation in percentage.”
The minister, however, said that the State-Owned Enterprises will not be covered under the clean wage system like the civil servants.
“SOEs are not covered under the clean wage system wherein employees are given their LTC and Leave Encashment on a prorated basis. Unlike civil servants, we didn’t divide LTC and leave encashment over 12 months. This is just for civil servants, SOEs will continue to implement what was in practice before,” said the minister.
The Performance Based Variable Incentive, PBVI for the SOEs can be given up to 25 percent which is at par with DHI companies at the discretion of the respective Board of Directors.
Meanwhile, according to the finance ministry’s notification, revision of pay and allowances for contract employees including the CEO shall be decided by the respective Board of Directors without altering the basic pay.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Kipchu
