29 Mar 2015

Government does not consider the A scale in the government salary structure to be irrelevant, says the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Phillip Makgalemele.

Mr Makgalemele said government had no intention to do away with the A band since jobs within the band were still required by the government.

He pointed out that the government used the Patterson method of job evaluation to grade public service jobs. He added that the method had six grade bands resulting in 22 job grade levels of which the A band in question was the lowest band with grades ranging from A1 to A3.

He said the nature of tasks in the A job category was based on the job evaluation method currently in use, adding that they were most frequently manual in nature. The assistant minister said the A band deals with jobs that were defined and that their level of decision making was just instrumental.

Mr Makgalemele further explained that a job grade was not a salary in itself because the salary could change based on different environmental factors of the job while the job grade remains the same as long as its job content has not been changed.

He also added that the A scale could not be raised because that would result in other band levels above the A band being affected thereby distorting the principles of job evaluation and grading.

He said if the issue was about matching the scale to today’s living standards, then the issue was about how much should the A scale be paid, and not raising the A scale because its job content had not changed.

The MP for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi had asked the assistant minister to state if he does not consider grade A scale in the government salary structure irrelevant to the current times and standard of living.

Mr Mmolotsi also wanted to know whether the assistant minister would consider doing away with the scale or substantially raising it to match today’s living standards. ENDS