By letter dated April 14, 2023, President Christine Kangaloo conveyed her approval for the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) to undertake a review of the terms and conditions of service of offices with the purview, based on the results of the job evaluation exercise and compensation survey, which was undertaken by the personnel department.
That review by the SRC became its 117th report, which is dated May 16, 2023, which is a short turnaround time.
One of the main recommendations of the 117th report of the SRC is: “The duty allowance and the special duty allowance have been consolidated into basic salary and should be regarded as having been discontinued from April 1, 2020, except in the case of the Prime Minister for whom the duty allowance is to be discontinued from October 1, 2020.”
Now, in explaining these allowances, the Commission stated in its most recent report: “The SRC acknowledges that duty and special duty allowances are essentially job-related allowances since they are provided in recognition of the special and peculiar nature and demands of such offices.
“In particular, these allowances take account of the consistently long and irregular hours required to be worked by office holders, often under considerable pressure, in order to meet the exigencies of their positions and the need for them to be available for duty at any time outside normal working hours.”
The 98th SRC report, which is dated November 2013, made salary-increase recommendations for a wide range of public officials. Those recommendations were accepted in March 2014. That was the last time public officials received salary increases.
If the SRC’s May 2023 recommendation that the duty and special duty allowances should be consolidated is looked at in relation to the salary-increase recommendations which were accepted by Cabinet in May 2014, some interesting revelations are apparent:
President
1) As outlined in its 98th report in 2014, the Commission recommended that the President of T&T should receive a salary of $64,270 per month plus a duty allowance of $9,650 per month.
If the President’s salary and her duty allowance are consolidated (meaning added together), the resulting salary would be $73,920, which is the exact amount recommended for Her Excellency in the 117th SRC report. T&T’s President is currently Christine Kangaloo.
Prime Minister
The Prime Minister’s salary in the 98th SRC report is given as $59,680 and his duty allowance was $8,960. Consolidated, his salary would be $68,640.
In its 117th report, the SRC recommends that the Prime Minister should be paid $80,000. The difference between the recommended salary of the Prime Minister, who is currently Dr Keith Rowley, and his consolidated salary is $11,360. That would be an increase of 16.55 per cent, if the Commission’s recommendations are accepted by Cabinet.
Cabinet ministers
The 98th report of the SRC resulted in ministers of Cabinet being paid a monthly salary of $41,030. While the Cabinet members received other allowances (including a subsistence allowance of $2,000 a month and a housing allowance of $12,360 a month) they do not receive duty allowances, as the Prime Minister does.
The 117th report of the SRC recommends that the salaries of ministers should increase to $47,500 a month. That is an increase of $6,470 a month or 15.76 per cent.
Leader of the Opposition
Following the 98th report of the SRC, the salary of the Leader of the Opposition was set at $29,590 a month. That parliamentary position was not entitled to a duty allowance either, although there is an entitlement to allowances including transportation of $5,880 per month and subsistence of $1,500 a month.
The salary recommended in the 117th report for the Leader of the Opposition is $47,500. If Cabinet accepts the most recent SRC report, the Leader of the Opposition, who is currently Mrs Kamla Persad Bissessar, would be entitled to an increase of $17,910 a month, which would be 60.52 per cent more compensation. If the SRC’s recommendation is accepted, the Opposition Leader’s salary would be on par with members of Cabinet, whereas it is currently 27.88 per cent less.
House Speaker
Coming out of the 98th SRC report, the salary for the Speaker of the House of Representatives was $29,590. The 117th report of the SRC recommends a salary increase to $42,500 a month, which is $12,910 or 43.62 per cent more compensation.
SRC’s analysis
The Commission notes that generally the compensation of the majority of officers within its purview were upgraded, while the compensation of a small percentage of officers was either decreased or maintained.
The SRC states that its recommendations would result in 93.3 per cent of the offices being in receipt of an increase in salary, 4.5 per cent a decrease in salary and 2.2 per cent would have their salaries maintained.
Overall, the SRC estimates that its recommendations would result in 91.8 per cent of officers receiving an increase in their total compensation.
Questions
* Should the Prime Minister receive a higher salary than the President?
* Given the four per cent increase offered to public servants for two bargaining terms, do any of the public servants whose salaries were reviewed by the SRC deserve more than that?
* Why should Cabinet ministers be entitled to a 15.76 per cent increase in their salary and a public servant working in a ministry only be entitled to four per cent?
* Can anyone disagree with the trade unionists (and some business leaders, see page 5) who argue that no salary reviewed by the SRC should increase by more than four per cent?
* And why does the 117th report contain so little justification for the salary increases proposed? The analysis in the 113th report of the SRC contains a lengthy explanation of why it did not recommend salary increases.
According to the 113th report, “In light of economic events globally, including the impact of the pandemic, and the economic challenges which the country has experienced since 2014, the Commission is assured that its decision to maintain existing salaries and allowances for offices with its purview is appropriate.”
The SRC recommended that “existing salaries payable to all office holders...should be maintained for the period April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2020,” with some minor exceptions for three heads of mission.
The 113th report of the SRC is dated October 31, 2022 and was signed by the following members of the Commission: chair Nicole Ferreira-Aaron and members Howard Dottin, Sandra Marchak, Chrisendath Mahabir, Martin de Gannes and Daryl Dindial, the chief personnel officer.
From what I can discern, there is only one difference between the Salaries Review Commission that wrote the 113th and the 117th reports.
* What happened between October 2022, when the 113th report of the SRC was completed and May 2023 when the 117th report was finished?
* Are we to assume that the current state of the economy facilitates the increases recommended by the SRC?