Justifications for launching a new employment strategy [Archives:2005/821/Business & Economy]

The Yemeni government has presented an explanatory memorandum on a project of a national strategy of wages and salaries and a draft law on employment and salaries system. The minister of civil service and securities Hamoud Khalid al-Soufi told the council of ministers that the studies on which the national strategy for modernizing the civil service and the national strategy of wages and salaries is attributed to many reasons, the more important of which is the low actual value of wages and salaries of the employee and high total value of those wages as seen by the state. The other main reason is the multi systems and structures of wages and that has created an unjustifiable sharp variance in levels of employees wages at various administrative sectors and units.

Among other reasons, he said, is the non-existence of jobs classification and consequently the lack of an indispensable reference, not only for determining wages and salaries in a fair manner through objective criteria and bases, but also because of the decisive role that it may play in improving administration of human resources due to what it contains of detailed information on jobs and their contents. The wage is not connected to the performance, incentives, and bonuses, which are not subject, in determining and granting, to logical criteria, but sometimes they change into source of frustration. All that and also because of the great variance in wages and salaries in various institutions even of the same scientific and specialty level. Sometimes this variance reaches at fourfold. , in addition to the difference in the annual increments amounts.

According to the government explanatory memorandum that has led to that the government machinery is being lacking in qualified and well-trained cadres and accumulation of employees at city centers, while the countryside has remained without enough employees and thus there has been an imbalance in the labor market between the supply and demand. This imbalance is a result of education orientation towards theoretical colleges instead of scientific ones. The total proportion of employees holding university degrees is estimated at 15% of the general totality of workforce.

Mir al-Soufi has considered the problems resulted from the present situation of the system and policies of jobs and wages would hamper the government apparatuses from implementation of programs of development and raising the efficiency of performance of public function as well as evaluation of that performance and fighting corruption.

The minister of civil service has clarified that the situation has led to the necessity of preparing a national strategy for wages and salaries and unified description. In implementation of presidential directives and those by the parliament, the government has designed the project of the national strategy for wages and salaries. In doing this, the government has sought assistance and participation of Arab and international expertise. The strategy works for the achievement of connection between three essential principles:

– Sufficiency: It is the realization of balance between the actual value of the employee wages and the relationship with the convenient degree of basic requirements of his life.

– Justice: There must be a connection between the salary and the position in a way that those wages and salaries differ or be equal according to the difference or similarity of the jobs the employees are doing.

– Efficiency: It is the act of activating the role of wages and salaries as an incentive means for the development and improvement of its results and also to raise the efficiency of running the human resources in general.
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