A salary increments in 10 professions from January 1st, 2025?

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Since the 2024 presidential election, there has been a lot of talk about the increase in government employee salaries, and now that a new year is upon us, many people’s attention is focused on the increase in government employee salaries. And also, as many social media posts are circulating on that regard, we decided to do a fact check on that.

Social media posts

A social media posts cited a news published under the main headline “Salary increases in 10 professions will be announced from January 1, 2025” (“2025 ජනවාරි මස 1 වන දින සිට වෘත්තීන් 10 ක වැටුප් වැඩිවීම් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කෙරේ”) published in Dinamina and Silumina newspapers relating the message “teacher salary increases”.

The news further stated that the salary increase procedure for 10 civil servant professions has already been issued from the first day of January 2025.

According to this, salaries will increase for the professions of teachers, nurses, office assistants, development officer, management assistant, development officers, public health inspectors, family health workers, radiologists and pharmacists and principals. The salary increase limits were also mentioned in the news.

Fb | Archive  Fb | Archive

Accordingly, as shown in these social media posts, after the new government came to power, we investigated whether a decision has been announced regarding a salary increase related to 10 public service professions from the year 2025 and whether this type of news has been reported.

List of increased salary levels being also spread in social media.

Fact Check

We investigated whether the Silumina newspaper has reported a news stating a salary increment related to 10 public service jobs in 2025. But it became clear that no such news has been reported by the Silumina newspaper since January 1 2025.

During our further investigation, it became clear that this news circulating on social media was published by Silumina newspaper on 31.8.2024. You can view the news published on the Silumina website from here. Archived.

It can also be seen through the e-news service provided by Lakehouse Institute for Dinamina/Silumina newspapers.

The 2024 presidential election was held on September 21 and this news was published on August 31, 2024. Therefore, it is clear that this is a story published in the Silumina newspaper during the time of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

At the time, the government has submitted a decision regarding an increase in the salaries of public servants from January 1, 2025. You can view the mainstream media from here, here and here.

When the postal voting for the 2024 presidential election was scheduled to begin on September 4, a press release issued by the Presidential Media division on September 2^nd stated that, according to the recommendations of the Presidential Expert Committee chaired by Udaya R. Seneviratne, appointed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate and take action on the disparities in government employee salaries, the basic salary of the public service will be increased by a minimum of 24% to 50% from January 2025.

The announcement of an increase in the salaries of civil servants in a background of a presidential election was heavily debated in the society and some parties has pointed out that this was a violation of the election laws.

However, after Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake became the president, there were talks about increasing the salaries of public servants again. At the cabinet press conference held on October 29, 2024, former cabinet press spokesperson Mr. Vijitha Herath was asked by journalists regarding the previous government’s decision to increase the salaries of public servants from January from 2025. 

Responding to that, the minister said that no money has been allocated to increase the salaries of the public service. He said in this press conference that this decision was taken without estimating whether there is money, and even if the cabinet decides there is no way to carry out this salary increase.

Commenting further on this, he says that from 2025, a guarantee will be given to increase the salaries of public servants, but it is not possible to say how much it will be.

The viral list shared as a PMD statement can be dated back to final days President Wickremesinghe`s tenure.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake

In a press conference held after Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake became the President, a journalist asked about when will the first salary revision scheduled to take place with the promise that a government employee salary revision will be made every 6 months.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that through the budget presented in February 2025, a fair salary increase will be made for government employees.

Here, the journalists also inquired whether the salary increase will be done according to the recommendations of the committee chaired by Udaya R. Senevirathne, which was approved by the cabinet of the previous government, or of there is another method. 

The President stated that the former government announced the increase in the salaries of public servants on September 3^rd. Also, since the postal vote was held on September 4,5,6, President states that this was definitely a political stunt. He further stated that through the postal voting results it is clear that the public servants didn’t approve of this.

He stated that he is currently consulting Udaya Senevirathne’s proposal and that there are some positive features in it, and that there are things that needs to be changed. He stated that a reasonable salary increase will be done in the budget document based on the existing reports and the new proposals.

Accordingly, the President says that the salary increase will be received in March or April. However, the President added that it has not been finally decided whether it will be an increase from January 2025 onwards.

New Government’s position on the salary increases in 2025.

We also inquired from Mr. Aloka Bandara, Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, whether there will be an increase in the salaries of public servants from January 2025. He told us that there will be no salary increase from January. But he said that after the 2025 budget, there will be an increase in government employee salaries.

The Minister of Labor and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Professor Anil Jayantha also said in a statement that next year a salary increase for government employees will be presented in the budget and to be expected.

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Conclusion

From our investigation, it is clear that the news published in Silumina newspaper that 10 professions in the public service will be increased from January 1, 2025, was not published recently or after the current government came to power, but was published in Silumina newspaper on August 31, 2024 even before the last presidential election.

Accordingly, it is clear that the news was published according to the information of the report proposed by the committee chaired by Udaya Senevirathne, who was appointed to submit recommendations on salary discrepancies during the time of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

However, President Anura Kumara says that under the new government, there will be no salary increase from January 1, 2025, and the information about the salary increase of public servants will be announced in the 2025 budget and then the decision will be implemented.