Civil servants will be getting a fatter bonus this year, to the
tune of a two-month year-end payment, thanks to Singapore’s strong
economic recovery.
In a media statement on Wednesday, the
Public Service
Division (PSD) said civil servants will get a
year-end bonus of two months, with one month being the annual
variable component and the other, the 13th month Annual Wage
Supplement (AWS).
In March 2011, good performers will further get a Special
Variable Payment, also known as the
Growth Bonus, of one
month, while better performers will receive up to 1.6 months. Poor
performers will not receive any, said the PSD.
This brings the total variable payment for 2010 to 2.5 months
and $300, said the PSD. In July, civil servants were given a
mid-year AVC of half a month and a one-off $300.
If the Growth Bonus is included, better performers could get
paid up to 4.1 months and $300 for the year of 2010.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Civil
Service
Teo Chee Hean
said, ”Civil servants accepted a wage reduction during the
difficult economic times and worked hard to help turn the economy
around quickly.”
The Growth Bonus recognises their contribution in helping
Singapore “recover from one of its worst recessions”, he said.
The
Ministry of Trade and
Industry‘s GDP forecast for
2010 is around 15 per cent. The Singapore economy
expanded by17.9 per cent in the first half of this year.
Last year, civil servants received one of the smallest bonus
packages in recent history. They went without a mid-year bonus, and
received their 13th month wage supplement and a
one-off payment of a quarter month’s pay, up to a cap of $750, at
the year-end.
DPM Teo added, “To ensure that Singapore can continue to
grow, we will have to work even harder to raise productivity and
find new ways of expanding the economy.”
<!--end background story-->The total bonus for this year
is slightly more than that of 2007, when total bonus was
2.5 months and $220, excluding the Growth Bonus. If
included, better performers could have gotten up to 3.3
months.
In 2006, before the Growth Bonus was introduced, civil servants
received one of the highest bonuses in recent years of 2.7 months
and $200.
Civil servant Stephanie Lim told Yahoo! Singapore
she is glad to hear the news, saying, “I will be very
happy if I can get two months’ bonus”.
But another civil servant, who declined to be named, said,
while “satisfied”, he had expected half a month more in
bonus, considering the Republic’s strong
growth.
In its statement, the PSD said, salary adjustments for
Administrative Officers, Political, Judicial and Statutory
Appointment Holders will continue to be deferred.
It explained, “This is in view of the reduction in the private
sector benchmarks this year. There is currently adequate
flexibility in the salary structure to allow salaries to rise and
fall in line with economic growth.”
The Government will monitor the economic growth and
movement of the benchmarks before deciding when to implement the
salary adjustment.
The first two phases of adjustment were made in 2007 and 2008,
but the last phase, which was due in 2009, has been deferred twice
since.