Turks and Caicos Island (TCI) civil servants are set to benefit from their new increased salaries which are paid today, Thursday, 21 May 2015.
This follows the TCI government previously announcing its Pay and Grading review, which will see $9m being invested in attracting, retaining and rewarding front line public workers.
The increases are targeted at those with the required technical and professional competencies, especially those working in the fields of education, health, immigration and firefighters.
“90% of our civil service is set to benefit from significantly increase remuneration,” said Head of the TCI civil service and Deputy Governor Anya Williams. “And everyone will benefit from the improved structures and the reintroduction of future pay increments.
“Not one person will see their earnings reduced, although the most senior levels of management, such as the Permanent Secretaries, are not receiving any increases. This implementation will benefit our efforts to attract and keep the right calibre of people in our public sector by rewarding their competencies and roles.”
The new system will also benefit government by absorbing a complicated and inconsistently applied set of allowances into one simpler, fairer and more appropriate pay and grading structure. It has been designed to be transparent, fair, equitable and reflect the major differences in responsibility and skill levels. It will allow the TCI public service to have a structure for the proper and transparent management of remuneration.
The benefits of implementing the new pay and grading system are:
A simplified structure for fair and equitable remuneration of public officers and waged staff
Systems and structures that ensure accountability in allocating remuneration and rewards fairly and justly and according to procedure
Line of sight between resources available to government with contribution made by effective people in well-designed jobs
Linking performance and incremental progression
Meeting equality of opportunity objectives
Enhanced transparency and integrity.
The cornerstone of the new pay and grading system is job evaluation which involved establishing grade level standards for each grade which are essentially a set of criteria that distinguish the compensable factors at the differing levels by describing features at each level.
The new system was developed through extensive consultation via a working group, including the Civil Servants Association, and the senior executive.
