Cops win case over pay rise
The High Court in Lilongwe has ordered the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to effect a salary increase for 53 graduate police officers who sued their employer for failure to raise their perks in 2017.
In his judgement dated February 8 2022, Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda has also ordered MPS to pay salary arrears to the officers which is the difference between the increased salary and the current one dating back to July 1 2017.
According to court records, the police carried out a functional review exercise in 2017 which led to changes in grades and implementation of pay hike across the board.
However, 155 graduate police officers were sidelined from the arrangement and their efforts to push for pay rise did not yield results.
After several engagements with police management and their Department of Human Resource, the 53 sought legal redress.
The functional review, according to the officers’ submission to the court, saw some officers jumping two grades upwards in the set-up with, for instance, grade M officers, constables and sergeants, moving to grades L and K in that order.
Reads the submission in part: “Those on grade L [sub-inspector] moved to Grade J. Those on K [inspector] moved to I. Those on I [superintendents and first degree holders] were supposed to be moved to Grade G and those on Grade H were supposed to be moved on F.”
In one of the letters shared in the courts, former acting Inspector General of Police Duncan Mwapasa described the officers’ conduct to sue MPS as illegal.
He also warned the officers that associating with a grouping whose objective was to influence a review of conditions of service is against standing orders.
However, in his ruling Justice Nyirenda said it is discrimination to have salaries raised two steps upwards for some after functional review and leave out other officers.
He said the claimants have succeeded in their actions against the defendants and; hence, their sought of relief were granted and asked the defendants to implement the reforms introduced in July 1 2017 in uniform manner.
The court ordered that the officers’ grades and salaries should be adjusted two steps upwards within 30 days from the day of the judgement.
The court also directed MPS to pay the claimants salary arrears—that is the difference between the increased salaries—and the current salaries from July 1 2017.
“An order awarding the claimants the cost of this action. The salary arrears payable by defendant to the claimants have to be assessed by the Assistant Registrar within 21 days,” reads the ruling in part.
A senior police officer, who refused to be named yesterday, said the ruling is a huge blow to MPS because it may open a Pandora’s box where officers would have little trust in the service to resolve their issues.
The officer said: “We are a security institution who believes in dealing with matters internally. We know officers have serious grievances and will take advantage of this ruling to sue the service.
“But my honest opinion is we are to blame for letting things out of hand. We should have yielded to their demands internally.”
In a written response yesterday, Inspector General of Police George Kainja said there is no bad feelings in having the officers sue them.
He said: “We respect the decision of the court and we will move forward. We are not worried as not all matters can be resolved internally, like in this case some have to be resolved outside by institutions like courts, Independent Complaints Commission and others”
The 2017 functional review report exposed gaps in terms of qualifications in MPS and recommended the need to recruit more graduates or encourage officers to upgrade to enable police “effectively handle emerging complex and advanced crimes”.
The report showed that out of 10 764 police officers, one percent had a bachelor’s degree, 62 percent were Malawi School Certificate of Education holders, 28 percent were Junior Certificate of Education holders and eight percent possessed Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education.
