Members of Parliament have tasked the cabinet to form a Salary Review Commission in order to overcome the challenge of salary discrimination among government employees.
The motion was tabled by Kassanda County North lawmaker Nsamba Patrick Oshabe as an issue of national importance where he revealed that the government has continually increased the salaries of some special groups leaving others within the same sector not cartered for.
In his submission, Nsamba said the recent act of increasing the salaries of the generals in the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) by 100 per cent without increasing the salaries of junior officers was too discriminatory and can lead to the country into trouble.
“I don’t condemn pay rise in the UPDF, but what perturbed me in that communication was that the increase was only for generals. However in such an economic trial we are going through, when we have lower-ranking officers who are serving well this country and they have not been considered on payrise, it puts the entire country into a very difficult situation,” he said.
Nsamba added that as the country is still struggling with the discriminatory pay rise for teachers, there is a need to ensure that there is uniformity in payrise in all government sectors to avoid incidents of industry actions.
“We must stop this tendency of hand-picking groups and increase their salaries. Rt Hon Speaker, it’s long overdue we have demanded the Salary Review Commission in this country so that salaries of government workers are managed. Secondly, it will help to ensure that people are paid what they are supposed to earn.”
In the same spirit, Busia Municipality legislator Macho Geoffrey expressed his worries as to why whenever salary increments come on board it’s only UPDF that is considered leaving behind the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda Prisons Services.
“Why doesn’t government talk about other forces like the Uganda Police Force, and Uganda Prisons Service whenever it talks about issues of salary increment?”
Their prayers were welcomed by Speaker Anita Among who alluded that it was high time government formed Salary Review Commission because it will solve many problems.
“Honorable members I think we need a Salary Review Commission and once we have it, it will cater for all sectors and all the salaries of people will be equalized. Sincerely in such an economic situation, you can not say that you are increasing the salaries of the generals who are already receiving something higher and leaving the lower-ranking officers. This is not good, everybody needs to be treated equally.”
Reacting to the Speaker’s quest, the State minister for defence Jacob Oboth Oboth promised the House that the government is soon coming up with a program to review the salaries of all civil servants, however, his submission did not satisfy the Speaker and she asked him to inform the House when the Salary Review Commission will be put in place.
“Executive this helps you and whatever is being raised is in good faith and for the good of this country,” she said.
While answering the Speaker and the entire house; the Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives David Bahati promised to come up with the exact date next week.
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