KAMPALA– The Ministry of Public Service has urged staff at Makerere University Business School threatening industrial action over delayed salary increment to be patient.
The ministry’s permanent secretary, Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, said the letter they received was from the staff who are not formally employed on permanent terms and as such are being paid using a different salary scale.
She said whereas government has not lifted the ceiling for them to get onto the government pay roll, she called for patience, noting that the ministry will continue engaging them to resolve the matter amicably.
Teaching and non-teaching staff in all public universities recently resolved to lay down their tools effective August 1 if their demands for salary enhancement are not met by the government.
Speaking last Tuesday during the opening of a two-day strategic peer mentoring and capacity building training for directors and commissioners and alumni of the Civil Service College Uganda at its headquarters in Jinja, public service minister Muruli Mukasa said they are in talks with their counterparts in the finance ministry over allocation of at least sh450b to enhance salaries of public servants who were not catered for in the budget.
The ministry had included enhancement of 40%, in the current financial year budget, but according to public service minister Muruli Mukasa, due to a shortage of funds, the idea was shelved.
“The enhancements left out the others who have not been included in the current budget. But we have been having discussions finance ministry. If we get sh900b or half of the money, we could be able to enhance salaries of other public servants,” he said.
The July circular standing instruction of the 2019/2020 salary structure distribution signed by the ministry’s permanent secretary Catherine Bitarakwate, indicates that the country’s wage bill will be sh4.6 trillion, up from sh4.2 trillion in 2018/19.