Why public servants missed out on pay rise for six months
The commission says it was left with only three commissioners after the September 2024 exit of the seven members. With a legal requirement of ten commissioners, the remaining trio could not form a quorum to approve or reject any of the salary review requests.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) failed to process 174 salary and allowance requests submitted between July and December 2024, as it lacked the quorum required to make decisions following the exit of seven commissioners, including former chairperson Lyn Mengich.
According to a new report by the Commission, this failure led to missed opportunities for government and county employees to secure salary increments, allowances, and collective bargaining agreement (CBA) reviews during the period. The commission revealed that it did not act on the 174 requests due to the absence of a fully constituted team of commissioners.
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“In the absence of the fully constituted commission, no request was determined and therefore the value for SRC advice was not computed for the period under review,” the SRC said.
The affected requests included 101 submissions on salary and job evaluation reviews, 50 on review of allowances and benefits, 19 on CBAs, and four related to productivity and performance. These were submitted by both national and county government entities seeking to enhance staff take-home pay amid rising economic pressures.
The commission says it was left with only three commissioners after the September 2024 exit of the seven members. With a legal requirement of ten commissioners, the remaining trio could not form a quorum to approve or reject any of the salary review requests.
The report indicated that the pending submissions remained in the commission’s in-tray until a new team was appointed in January 2025.
“The requests received from the in-tray of the matters awaiting the constitution of the new commission,” reads the report.
Despite the delay, employees may still benefit from the stalled reviews. The government has, in the past, backdated salary increments delayed by legal hitches or funding shortages, suggesting the possibility that workers may eventually receive the salary and benefit adjustments once the new commissioners process the backlog.
The volume of requests made between July and December surpassed those received in the first quarter (July–September 2024) of the current financial year, when national and county government entities submitted 88 proposals worth Sh10.35 billion. Of these, the commission had approved requests amounting to Sh6.5 billion before the quorum issue disrupted operations.
The SRC noted that while public servants await resolution of their cases, their private sector counterparts continue to struggle with stagnated wages, highlighting the contrast in wage dynamics across sectors.
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