Armenia’s parliament panel delays public-service pay bill

Armenia’s National Assembly State and Legal Affairs Committee has postponed discussion of a public-service pay package for up to two months. Chair Arusyak Julhakyan said further discussions were needed to revise it; the postponement does not itself change current pay.

The package would amend the law on remuneration of people holding state and state-service positions and 20 other legislative acts. It follows a government proposal for a new pay system for people holding state positions.

At the committee’s meeting, the government said the draft’s author would not take part that day, Civic.am, a news site close to the governing Civil Contract party, said. Julhakyan cited the National Assembly’s Rules of Procedure law as the basis for the postponement. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is listed as the department associated with the draft.

What the proposal would change

The Armenian Union of Employees of State Institutions and Local Self-Government Bodies welcomed a proposed increase for lower-level specialists but said the circulated draft placed too much value on position in the administrative hierarchy compared with experience, knowledge and long service.

In an update, the union said the government had revised the draft to provide service-linked supplements for all state servants. It described a proposed supplement of 2% of the official salary rate for each year of work or service, capped at 30%, in cases covered by the law.

In a response reproduced by the union, the government said the proposal would set the base salary amount in the remuneration law rather than in each annual state budget law. It said this would provide stability and predictability while allowing the amount to be revised if needed.

Julhakyan said the public and the committee would be notified when the draft was ready to be placed on the agenda and discussed.