SINGAPORE, June 18 — The Singapore government has decided that there will not be any mid-year Annual Variable Component (AVC) payment to civil servants this year, according to the republic’s Public Service Division (PSD).

In addition, the division said public officers in superscale grades will take either a one-time 0.5-month or one-month pay cut, in accordance with their seniority.

"This comes on top of the earlier 0.5-month pay cut taken by senior public service officers in key leadership positions, which was announced in February 2020,” it said on its website today.

PSD said these measures take into consideration the recommendations of the National Wages Council (NWC) release in March this year, which called on employers and employees to do their part, with management taking the lead, in helping to reduce costs and save jobs.

The division said the decision was made against the backdrop of a worsening economic outlook, and in close consultation with the public sector unions.

PSD noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on the economic situation both externally and domestically.

Citing the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s latest estimates, PSD said the republic’s 2020 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast has been downgraded to "-7.0% to -4.0%”, from the earlier forecast of "-4.0% to -1.0%”.

"The labour market is also weakening. Total employment (excluding foreign domestic workers) for the first quarter of 2020 has contracted sharply. Resident and citizen unemployment rates continued to rise in March 2020, while retrenchments rose over the quarter.”

The Singapore Public Service employs about 146,000 officers in 16 ministries and more than 50 statutory boards. Within the Public Service is the Civil Service, comprising about 85,000 officers in the ministries. — Bernama