The Government of Rwanda is preparing to release a new regulation that removes the three-year maximum period of an interim position and replace it a one-year maximum, according to the Ministry of Public Service and Labour.
The new statutes governing public servants will bar public interim leaders occupying the sits in a period exceeding one year interim position except when a servant is only serving in the capacity development programmes.
Fabien Mberabagabo the Chief Labor Inspector at labour ministry said that the new instrument seeks to help public servants to look for other jobs instead of spending much time without assurance.
“Public servants will be given chance to choose quickly if they remain at the job or not so that they can find other opportunities” Mberabagabo commented.
However, some players in the civil society weighed in with an idea of reducing the interim positions to six months, according to Anthony Butera the legal representative at AJEPRODHO, the Youth Association for Human Rights Promotion and Development.
Butera expressed concerns that one-year for the people working in the interim positions is still too long a period for a public servant to work with uncertainty.
“A year is still too long for a staff working in dilemma without knowing whether he or she will be retained or dropped. It is a lot of wasted time” Butare said.
Butare insists that “a staff that exceeds six months in interim positions should be permanently recruited for the job; otherwise a period of one year in provisional placement is too long”
Aimable Ndayisaba, a Labor law lawyer said that the more time a staff spends on the provisional positions, the more a staff raises the standards of living and therefore it becomes so hard when he or she leaves the position.
“In such situation it becomes hard for the staff to maintain the current lifestyle, having gone up to a standard that is not permanent.” Ndayisaba adds.
According to the law regulating general statute of public servants, a public servant in an acting position for more than thirty days is entitled to the salary and other monthly fringe benefits in relation to the acting position.
Source: Kigali Law Tidings
