Civil servants union leaders have welcomed the new salary and grading structure by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) but they have at the same time raised some concerns about the review arguing that some of their members may be affected negatively.

Although SRC had said that the new salary structure will help bridge the gap between the highest and lowest-paid civil servants, the union leaders say the wage gap is still huge. Under the revised structure the highest paid civil servant under job group (E) will rank in sh 576,120 and the lowest (B1) sh10, 786.

The leaders have also argued that some of their members who had professionally progressed will lose out on their seniority under the new SRC grading structure, which has 19 categories for all the 600,000 employees in the public service.

“County commissioners who enter the public service with a starting salary of Sh 152,000 with the possibility of climbing to Sh 309,000 cannot go beyond Sh 252, OOO under the new structure”, said union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) Tom Odege.

Civil servants will receive a pay rise effective from July 1 under the new pay structure.