Question NW889 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration
04 June 2020 - NW889
Denner, Ms H to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration
(1)Whether, with reference to the recent advertisement for a director-general by the Department of Small Business Development at a salary of R 1 978 533.00 (Level 16), he has found that it is justifiable to make new appointments at such exorbitant salary levels amidst the fiscal and economic crisis facing the Republic; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, how is it justifiable;
Reply:
- The Public Service as an employer has made a number of interventions to reprioritise funding during the difficult and challenging economic conditions we are currently experiencing as a nation.
All posts in the Public Service are evaluated through the prescribed job grading system. The remuneration for a post is determined on the basis of a number of factors including, but not limited to, the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and the need to recruit and retain employees with appropriate skills and competencies.
All Directors-General in the Public Service are remunerated according to a standard salary structure that consists of a number of elements constituting total cost-to-employer packages (notches). The salary of R1 978 533 that was indicated for the Director-General of the Department of Small Business Development is the minimum notch of the standard salary level applicable to Directors-General.
- With regard to vacant senior management service (SMS) posts, it is important to note that once an SMS post becomes vacant, irrespective of the notch the previous incumbent held, the remuneration of the post reverts to the minimum notch of the salary level attached to the post. These salary levels are determined through the job grading system and ad hoc changes or downgrades to levels would severely compromise the job grading and remuneration regimes of the Public Service.
The salaries of public servants are protected in terms of the provisions of the Public Service Act, 1994. Section 34 of the Act provides that the salary of an employee shall not be reduced without his or her consent except in terms of section 38 of the Act (that deals with wrongly granted remuneration), an act of Parliament or a collective agreement. The size of the Public Service wage bill is being managed through a number of initiatives but the reduction of salaries of individual employees is not being considered.
- No statement on this matter is considered necessary at this point in time.