Salary anomalies in railway sector no more: Finance Ministry

As per the recommendation of the Special Commission on reviewing salaries of the public sector appointed by tshe President, the monthly salary of all public servants will be increased by a minimum amount of Rs. 3000 and a maximum of Rs.24, 000 per month, effective from January 2020, the Finance Ministry said in a release.

This salary increment will be granted in addition to the salary increment which was granted up to 107% by 2020, compared to the basic salary that prevailed in 2015.

As a result of this new salary increment, existing salary anomalies in different sectors of the public service will be removed.

The President had appointed a 15-Member Salary Review Commission, headed by S. Ranugge, to make recommendations to remove the salary anomalies in the public sector.

As a result, the salary of all public service workers will be further increased from January 2020, and the salary anomalies which were reported in certain public sector organisations, inclusive of the Railway and the Postal Services, will be removed.

In order to remove the anomalies in the Railway Department, a new salary scale titled TL with an initial monthly salary of Rs. 36,095 has been created for Railway Supervisory Management Service. The salary scale MT 1 has been placed under the initial salary step of Rs. 34,415 for Railway Engine Driver Aide. Therefore, there is no need for railway workers to continue the ongoing trade union action demanding a solution to their salary anomalies.

As per the earlier salary proposals under PA Circular 3/2006, the minimum basic salary of a primary level public servant will be increased to Rs. 24,250 by 2020 from Rs. 11,730 in 2015. Under the recommendations of the Ranugge Salary Commission, this will be further increased by Rs. 3000 to Rs. 27,250 per month.

Comparing to this salary increment, the overtime allowance for nearly 1.1 million public servants will also be increased. In addition, as all these salary increments are added to the basic salary, all employees in the public sector will be privileged to claim a higher amount of disaster loans and property loans, as these are calculated based on the basic salary.

Rs. 562 billion was paid as public sector salaries in 2015 and has increased up to Rs. 750 billion to date. Payment of pension, which cost Rs. 157 billion in 2015, has now increased up to Rs. 225 billion.

The Government has decided to pay this increased new salary in two equal instalments from January 2020 and January 2021. It will cost an additional amount of Rs. 120 billion per year.

In the meantime, 75,000 new employees have been recruited to the public service over the last 4 years.