Civil service pay hike will depend on performance
Franz Manderson, Cayman Islands Deputy Governor
(CNS): The pay increases for public sector workers announced in the government’s Strategic Policy Statement last week will not be automatic but dependent on their performance, according to Deputy Governor Franz Manderson. Responding to the SPS in the Legislative Assembly, he said he wanted the public to know that the salary hikes would be based on merit in a bid to continue encouraging civil servants to perform at the highest level.
Wanting to address both the long pay stagnation for civil servants and the inequities that have emerged over the years among government workers, Premier Alden McLaughlin announced in his speech that teachers, uniformed branches and many other public sector employees could look forward to pay rises next year in addition to the recently reinstated and slightly increased cost of living allowance.
Thanking the premier for acknowledging the hard work of government staff, Manderson said he was grateful that the money had been found to address the long-standing problems of unfair pay.
“The civil service will continue to work hard and what we are doing now is all about performance and accountability. We are not going be rewarding civil servants with an uplift in salary unless they have been performing at a set standard,” he said. “We want to encourage our civil servants to perform at the highest levels and that high performance will be rewarded.”
He said the civil service was moving forward with the strategic plan that will be rolled out in 2016. “I am very excited about that in terms of where we are going. We are looking at customer services, leadership and the priorities of the elected leaders.”
During his delivery of the SPS, the premier said that the increase in the civil service retirement age from 60 to 65 would be implemented next April.
One of the next major changes for the civil service pay and benefits package will be the introduction of co-pay on their health insurance cover. Most civil servants currently have comprehensive cover with CINICO but unlike the private sector public sector workers, they are not required to pay towards that cover. The premier said a strategy was needed to bridge the gap in the increasing healthcare liabilities for the public purse and that the deputy governor was conducting a review of the terms and conditions of civil servants.
Category: Government Finance, Politics
Who is going to grade the DG and his chief officers performances?. Increase the pay all around and get on with it. Coz at the end of the day cost a living increases and its not performance based now is it.. Maybe what the DG in his wiseness should do is offer incentives and stop dangling food over civil servants mouths…
In other news, pigs will fly.
As long as they keep basing performance on which church I belong to and how many cup cake parties I give at the office, I will keep collecting my expected annual increase and bonus as I have for the past 20 years.
Pay icrease tied to performance! Master stroke! Net cost to tax-payer $0 ………… assuming it is managed properly …………… but there is probably a 0% chance of that – Doh!
Can the increases be paid in donuts?
Cut the civil service staff by half and then we might see acceptable productivity out of those remaining.
It used to be that each year the budget speech would contain a reference to ‘new services’ which, if you believed it, were supposed to be demanded by the public. In reality every ‘new service’ was invented by a senior civil servant looking to build his or her empire: more services means more staff and it is well known that senior civil servants judge each other’s status by the number of staff they have under them.
Every ‘new service’ instituted since, say, 1980 should be discontinued.
1980?? Maybe so, 10:25, but that would mean huge cuts to the HSA (formerly Health Services Department) for increased services possible with the new hospital, the Prison, the Police, the Schools (more pupils equaled more new schools and therefore teachers), Customs (new tariff code), Immigration (got 20 more to “keep borders secure” some years back) the Brac (20 more for Fire Dept and Cayman Airways recently announced by Moses) etc etc. I could go on but you get the picture. I’m not saying I disagree with you (except your bit about empire building/status-most new hiring is demanded by politicians) but it’s not as simple as you imply.
We need to reduce the size of our government, privatize some areas and cut back on the foreign work force could reduce our expense by about 20%
Then we could afford to give some raise of pay where truly is deserved.
So you can realize a bigger net profit at the end of your fiscal year.
Still think this thing about teachers at top of their paid grade receive no increase is a bit crappy.
How about a bonus for turning up on time.
Only having one hour lunch.
Leaving on time.
Not shopping on the internet.
Not talking to their mates on the phone.
The department I work in two thirds of the people arrive late and then they go and make breakfast, read the paper or surf the web for an hour.
Bring in timeclocks .
I agree, except we’d need to tender for timeclocks, then hire people to run and check the timeclock. Said timeclock people might be tempted to cover for their friends or heaven forbid augment their pay packet but selling timeclock favours.
Before the award of annual increments was stopped in 2001, all civil servants received an annual boost to their salaries of about 2-3%. But it was “subject to satisfactory performance”. In 2000, out of a then civil service of over 4000 persons, less than 10 employees were found to have given unsatisfactory performance (according to their bosses) and received no increase in salary.
Thank you Deputy Governor you are making a difference in the civil service. We understand that change takes time but the progress you have made in just 3 years is outstanding. Of course the brainless posters do not care to accept this. But I know that you will not be deterred. I know you must smile when you read comments about you not having the balls to do your job…They really don’t know you , do they. I for one LOL because I have worked with you and seen your strength first hard. So many people are in for a shock.
If it’s truly based on performance, half will be fired, the other half will be at $6 an hour.
Can the performance review to see who gets pay raises start with the NWDA and the DLP??? These 2 departments are about as hopeless as they come. The DLP is THE ONLY department in government that one has to wait 24 hours on to be provided with service….and ya fortunate if anyone does indeed contact you in that period. So my good friends, if the employees in these entities get pay increases then we can be pretty much assured that it will be done across the entire spectrum of government. God help us taxpayers, our pennies being flushed away.
Performance and accountability only exist in the private sector, nothing will ever change in the Civil Service.
Let me see if I get this right. The public has been crying about poor accountability in the civil service. We finally have a DG that has made this a prority ….but yet you still complain. Accountability will not change overnight. The DG has put the right policies and procedures to improve accoutablity and it’s happening. I am a civil servant and I can say I am seeing a difference. Poor performers are being pulled up and some have been dismissed. But why does everyone say that only the civil service under performs.
Today I called 411 for kirk home center and was given the number for kirk supermarket …I have been waiting for 3 weeks for my bank to respond to my email …I’m being ripped off by my telephone service provider who provides poor Internet speed … where is the accountability.
Civil servants are the key to your livihood in cayman …We protect you at night ensure that your car is safe to drive and that your house is built correctly …that you can have a domestic helper …that the financial services industry provides excellent service …We do all of this ..but yet we are so bad. Yeah right. I’m proud to be a civil servant
You can change your phone service provider, you can change your bank – you cannot change your civil servants.
Is their “Cost of Living” also dependent on performance?
No it is not.
Workers are now still earning salaries that a nay decade behind our government own statistics.
When will this injustice be rectified sir?
Civil servants’ own fault for fighting necessary number cuts. That fat fought getting trimmed so the cost savings could not be made.
I was wondering when someone woukd pick up on that point. To link it to performance speaks volume about our so called Deputy Governor. Performance pay is prescribed and governed by a totally separate and specific provision in the Public Service Management Law Regulations which not even the head of the Civil Service himself understand.
If it were based on performance 95% of them should owe the public money! Such incompetence, arrogance and indifference!!!
Anybody who has been in Government for the last 20 years caused the failure of Cayman
“Civil service pay hike will depend on performance”… Surely that means the vast majority will receive a pay cut?
TO EVERYONE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR!!! I am so sorry for our loss as we will be the one´s footing the bill for all CIG workers pay increase whether they deserve it or not. I will grieve for all of us.
If you could just some how get the balls to fire those who do not deserve the jobs (management especially) You would instantly have a much better work force.
That would start with the head of the Civil Service.
My goodness!! that depends on who is judging the performance!!!!!
360 performance reviews are key..when will this be introduced?
After we get 1 degree performance reviews.
That just means the reviews will just be civil servants slapping each other on the front and back. External reviews with a target 10% cull would be best.
I welcome the 360 performance review which must include top to bottom civil servants. I know I can hold my own.
what standards?…this is just a media soundbite…the usual cig waffle…
“We are not going be rewarding civil servants with an uplift in salary unless they have been performing at a set standard,” said Gov. Manderson.
I predict that all civil servants will be found to be working “at a set standard”.
As a former civil servant, this is a joke, and the joke was on us. The “annual review” process was known to us as the “interview for the 3’s!” No one in the department, except for a few “suck-ups” to management ever got more (or even less) than a 3 out of 5 review – EVER! That is the “meets expected performance” level. This was the water cooler topic of the week when the reviews were being conducted. We all compared our reviews and this was the default result.
JOKE!!
Great. No pay hikes all round.
Aint that true Mouse…SO so true 2.5-3.5. 3.0 …first year in service I was told just to ignore it..does not matter
Why just implement pay hikes for good performance? How about introducing pay reductions for staff who don’t pull their weight? You could probably save CIG $millions by doing that.
Why not drastically reduce basic salaries and implement performance bonuses? That way the slackers would only get paid what they deserve and those actually doing something could earn their money. Only problem then would be the idiots in charge who determine who gets what but you could even incentivise that and penalise them for being too generous. The harsh reality is that payment of public sector salaries is way too close to being little more than a Cayman Islands’ welfare programme to be comfortable.
I want to like this comment 100 times!!!!
Unlike the postal service which is a welfare program for Caymanians.
No it won’t. We know that.
Some of you are just horrible. Of course some are not doing there fair share but there are hard working ones as well. The way all of you beat them down it is a wonder they can get up in the mornings to go to work. Please bear in mind that lazy workers are also found in the private sector and all the crap about being fired if private sector.workers were like public sector workers is just crap. Some of them spend their entire careers slacking off. It all depends on who you know also I often wonder how private sector would function if not for public sector workers.all your negativity is only dragging Cayman down and causing this dark cloud that seems to be hovering over us. please remember you live here too and when we suffer so do you.