Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question to the Minister is, how do you calculate remuneration based on years? Is there a formula? If you are looking through the Public Service Act I believe the maximum you can get is 24 months and you receive one month for every year served. I am wondering, on the basis of that, an individual who may have served 16 or 17 years should receive a remuneration of 16 or 17 months. Is that a steadfast way of measuring the compensation of public service employees in the government?
What I do not like about the whole idea is, there is a reason for the 24 months because there is that maximum. I think we have people in our public service who have served over 20 years, going onto 25, in some cases 30 years of service. The most they are going to receive is 24 months. I find it kind of unfair that someone can waltz in and sure, I believe people should be compensated for time served, but I do not think you should be receiving extra remuneration based on goodwill. The whole idea of serving time is that you have earned it. If you have earned it you should be compensated.
To get an extension over and above other people in the public service who have worked for many years and at the end of it all know that the most they will get when they leave is 24 months, but they have had to serve 24 years.
I would like to ask the Minister, what is the means of measuring? Is there a policy that states it is actually based on one month per year? Is that the process by which you measure the remuneration based on the Public Service Act?