Court reaffirms SRC’s authority over pblic officers salaries
Court reaffirms SRC’s authority over pblic officers salaries
The Court of Appeal has reaffirmed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC’s) constitutional authority to determine and review the remuneration of public officers.
In a recent ruling, the court held that advice by SRC on the remuneration of public officers is binding when the constitution requires the commission to provide advice.
Remuneration arrangements made without this prior advice, the court said, are of no legal consequence.
The ruling followed a case involving 47 County Secretaries who had challenged changes to their remuneration after the establishment of county governments.
The County Secretaries had argued that the SRC unlawfully downgraded their positions from an equivalent of Job Group T to Job Group S, resulting in reduced remuneration.
They also claimed that SRC violated their rights to equality, fair labour practices and fair administrative action.
However, the appellate court dismissed their argument, maintaining an earlier ruling that SRC has a constitutional mandate under Article 230 of the Constitution to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits of State officers.
“In the end, and for the reasons given hereinabove, we find no basis for interfering with the judgment of the trial court. Accordingly, this appeal is not merited and it is hereby dismissed,” the court ruled.
According to the Court of Appeal, SRC also has the mandate to advise the national and county governments on the remuneration and benefits of other public officers.
SRC is required to consider factors including fiscal sustainability, the need to attract and retain skills, productivity and performance, as well as transparency and fairness.
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In their argument, the appellants said they were initially recruited under a remuneration framework equivalent to Job Group T, but SRC later placed them on a lower remuneration framework linked to Job Group S, which ultimately reduced their earnings.
According to them, the commission had no power to redesignate their office and that it failed to give them the preliminary job evaluation report before asking them to comment on it.
They argued that this violated their constitutional rights to equality, fair labour practices and fair administrative action under Articles 27, 41 and 47.
The Court of Appeal, however, found that the County Secretaries had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that their offices had formally been classified as Job Group T or that the SRC had formally redesignated them to Job Group S.
According to the court, an equivalency used for remuneration purposes does not by itself create, abolish or reclassify a public office.
On fair administrative action, the judges noted that the SRC’s remuneration decisions followed a broader public service review involving consultations with various stakeholders, including county governments and the Council of Governors.
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