government employees at national, provincial and local government work
26 April 2007
The Department of Public Service and Administration is working on a draft
Single Public Service framework, which would see uniformity in the conditions
under which government workers at national, provincial and local government
work.
Currently, the employees of national and provincial government fall within a
single policy framework from which local government is excluded. The single
public service initiative will bring local government into the framework under
which national and provincial governments operate.
The envisaged framework on a single public service would see a common wage
policy for the entire public service, harmonised conditions of service (medical
aid and pension funds), norms and standards for human resource management,
legal mechanisms for mobility within a single public service, and a common
culture of service delivery across the three spheres of government (including
standards for service delivery).
Work is currently in progress to undertake a personnel expenditure review at
local government level as well as an impact analysis of medical and pension
fund arrangements at local government level. The results of these studies will
be important to establish the cost implications to the State in harmonisation
of these various areas as well as the appropriate crafting of an appropriate
legislation and related regulations.
Currently, the conditions of service in national and provincial government
vary significantly with those at local government. In the national and
provincial government, a job is evaluated and calculated to have a certain
weight, which corresponds to a salary grade. The job weight determines the
salary, and the salary grades are uniform throughout the public service, with
some sectoral exceptions.
In a local government, under municipalities, remuneration is determined by
means of the revenue collected by the municipality. Affordability largely
determines the salary level, which means that there is a multiplicity of pay
scales in local government.
The single public service framework seeks to change this, so as to create a
more cohesive workforce, consisting of all spheres of government and most
importantly, a multi-skilled and mobile cadre of public servants to deliver
integrated services where the need exists.
The idea behind the legislation is to harmonise the conditions under which
public servants work, be that at national, provincial or local government
level.
Enquiries:
Lewis Rabkin
Cell: 082 497 3220
Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
26 April 2007
