Al-Majrisi links fair pay to comprehensive administrative reform
LIBYA – Academic and human resources expert Faraj Al-Majrisi has said that unifying the salaries of employees in Libya cannot be achieved simply by drawing up a unified pay scale and setting an amount for each grade, but requires comprehensive administrative and technical reform that begins with evaluating and describing jobs before setting pay.
Job descriptions and job families
In exclusive remarks to Sputnik, Al-Majrisi said the process requires defining the tasks, responsibilities and powers of each grade, explaining that employees with the same job title may carry different responsibilities and work pressures, while jobs with different titles may be equal in their actual value.
He called for adopting the concept of job families and a unified job evaluation, instead of leaving each institution to its own separate judgement.
Multiple scales across education, health and the security sectors
He pointed to differences in pay and allowance regulations between education, higher education, health, the army, the police and public utilities, saying that unifying them raises the question of which criteria would guarantee fairness between different kinds of work.
He stressed the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, by measuring the knowledge and skills required, the level of responsibility, the mental and physical effort involved and working conditions.
He said a distinction must be drawn between the value of a job, its grade and the qualification needed to fill it on the one hand, and the actual performance of the person holding it on the other.
Productivity, performance indicators and promotion
Al-Majrisi said raising or unifying salaries does not automatically increase productivity unless it is tied to clear tasks and key performance indicators that measure achievement, service quality, error rates and the time needed to complete tasks.
He called for linking promotions and staff recognition to measurable results and for encouraging healthy competition, rather than relying solely on time served without regard to achievement or professional development.
Drawing on the British experience and professional skills
He said international experience, particularly the British system, which classifies and evaluates jobs according to tasks and responsibilities, could help reform local systems.
He added that equal pay does not necessarily mean fairness, citing the differences between the duties of a faculty member with advanced qualifications doing specialised academic work and other jobs with different qualification and responsibility requirements.
He stressed the need to take account of experience, professional certificates and additional skills alongside university qualifications, and to set out clearly the basic salary, allowances and the nature of each job.
Salary bill of nearly 67 billion dinars
Al-Majrisi said the project needs a careful study of its financial cost and its impact on the general budget, especially as the salary bill has reached about 67 billion dinars, according to the Central Bank of Libya reports he cited.
He said the right starting point is to classify and evaluate jobs and then set grades and pay levels, so as to strike a balance between fairness at work and financial sustainability.
