Lessons Learnt from the Recent Pay
and Grading Review of the Lebanese
Public Service
Samer Hankir
Public Administration/Policy Analyst
Seminar on “Pay and Grading Reform”
Amman – September 20-21, 2006
The Salary Scale in the Lebanese
Civil Service
 The
ratification of a new salary scale for
public teachers in March 1997.
 The
initiative to design and adopt a new
salary scale for civil servants was
endorsed in November 1998 and became
effective as of January 1999.
The Objectives of the Salary Scale

Increase wages by certain percentages;

Rectify irregularities and promote harmony in the
pay system;

Integrate the multifarious types of allowances
into the basic salaries;

Re-define the ranking system
The Grading System
Grade I
Director General
Grade II
Director
Grade II
Head of Service
Grade III
Head of Bureau
Grade III
Head of Section
Grades IV &V
Rank-and-File
The Ranking System
From
a 6-rank system within each grade, to a
22-rank system in which rank one is the lowest
and rank 22 is the highest.
Every
two years, the civil servant climbs the
ladder by one rank.
Challenges







Retroactive payments are still on hold;
Compression of the salary scale;
The absence of a comprehensive civil service
census and regular functional reviews;
The lack of officially adopted job descriptions;
The freezing of the administrative reform section
(the reform provisions were eliminated);
The controversy over the recruitment system
Salary erosion
The Current Reform Initiative:
A Change “by retail”

The completion of a job description and position
classification review by the OMSAR awaiting the
action of the CSB;

The adoption of a new recruitment system for
grade I civil servants;

The institutionalization of HRM in the civil
service organizations;

The instillation of a “performance culture”.
Job Description and Position
Classification

Job description, evaluation and classification of
15000 established positions in all ministries with
few exceptions.

The project was supported by international
expertise (factors and point-rating)

A new grading system was the by-product of the
project (from 5 to 15 grades).

Computerization of data.
Job Description and Position
Classification
1.
Service Delivery: (a) interaction; (b) Impact;
(c ) Thinking Challenge; (d) Physical Demands
2.
Responsibility: (a) for the Work of Others;
(b) for individual care; (c ) for financial resources;
(d) for technical resources
3.
Work Conditions: (a) Environment; (b) Health hazards
4.
Skills and Knowledge: (a) Context; (b) Laws &
regulations (c )Theories & Principles; (d) Techniques &
Practices (e) Communication (f) Physical dexterity
Stumbling Blocs

Bureaucratic resistance

Excessive vacancies

Organizational impediments

The “ownership” dilemma

The lengthy methodology

The “No-distinction risk”

Budgetary constraints
Avoiding the Impasse

The project is the first serious HR effort in the
history of the Lebanese administration since
1959 !

The Restructuring fallout

Updating, marketing and absorbing shocks !