Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairman of Luwero district, says that it's better for public officers to seek early retirement, especially if they are tired of the civil service, rather than staying at work and not delivering.
At least 60 civil servants apply for early retirement every
year in Luwero district leaving a vacuum of skilled labour.
According to Public Standing Orders Section L-a, a
pensionable public officer shall retire from the service upon attainment of mandatory
age in the Pension Act. The mandatory retirement age for service servants is 60
years.
However, the Public Standing Orders L-a (3) allows the
public officer to seek early retirement after clocking 45 years and served for a continuous
10 years in service or has served for a continuous pensionable period of at least 20 years.
According to Luwero District Human Resource Officer Bernard
Okello, only 36 met the conditions for approval of their early retirement requests in the financial year 2024/25 and 30 civil servants approved for the year
2025/26.
Okello added that scores of the applicants are not approved
because they do not meet the guidelines as stipulated in the public standing orders.
The most applicants are teachers and health workers among other cadres.
He explained that the applicants cite grounds for early
retirement as sickness and are unable to upgrade as per government policy for
teachers.
He however noted that through personal interactions with
applicants, some applicants cite low pay and desire to concentrate on other
economic activities to boost income.
According to Luwero District Human Resource Office, 72 civil
servants are due for mandatory retirement in the financial year 2024/25 and 83 public
officers will also retire in 2025/26.
At least seven civil servants have died in
the financial year 2024/25 and are due for replacement.
However, Okello says that the district is still able to
replace both the officers seeking early and mandatory retirement due to the availability of
unemployed graduates.
Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairman of Luwero district, says that it's better for public officers to seek early retirement, especially if they are tired of the civil service, rather than staying at work and not delivering.
Kibirango explained that last year, the Ministry of
Education and Sports introduced a Teacher Effectiveness and Learner Achievement
(TELA) performance monitoring system in the district which has made it impossible for teachers to be absent
from work.
“Now because they fear being dismissed for not working, many
have resolved to seek early retirement and we recommend that they leave them to
go. It’s good to leave them go and we replace them with those that want to work
at the available salary” Kibirango said.
But Charles William Mpiima the Vice LCIII Chairperson of
Kikyusa town said that early retirement is bad for the district because it
contributes to the loss of skilled labor something that leads to poor service
delivery.
Mpiima asked the government to address the key driver of
early retirement which is poor pay.
“Several teachers today can’t look after themselves and family
due to poor pay.
The situation has been made worse by calls for the upgrade, with
such salaries many have opted to leave the education service” Mpiima said .
Luwero district has a total labour force of 4230 employees.