Police Officers Drag Gov’t To Court For Cutting Their Salaries

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Uganda news March 26, 2023

A number of police officers totalling to over 170 with law degrees have dragged the government to court for cutting their salaries. Apparently, this was reduced to the same level as those of social scientists midway through their employment.

The salary cuts were effected in November 2022. This was when the Ministry of Public Service indicated that they had been getting higher salaries by error. Attempts by the affected officers to reverse the Public Service ministry order failed.

On March 15, 2023, the High Court Civil Division sent summons to the Attorney General to file his defence in 15 days. A copy of the summons was received by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs on March 17.

Legal officers at the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, who have been earning Shs5.6m per month, are now getting Shs700,000. This is like any other arts graduate that the police recruited.

The affected legal officers are at the rank of ASP and above. They said they got appointment letters indicating that they were legal officers. They also added that their salary scale was properly indicated.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, had earlier directed the Ministry of Public Services to solve the pay problem.

However, they didn’t solve it. The Ministry insists they hired the officers as general duties officers. They were not hired as legal officers and therefore can’t be paid as such.

The officers have been earning the salary of legal officers for at least nine years.

A police officer, who is one of the complainants, told Sunday Monitor that their intention wasn’t to sue the government they work for.

However, they have reached out to every concerned person to sort out the problem and haven’t seen results.

“We were left with no alternative but to sue the Attorney General so that we are able to force the government to meet its contractual obligations,” one of the officer said.

According to public services standards, lawyers who are hired in different government agencies are supposed to be given the same pay. However, some government agencies interpret regulations differently.

The salary of legal officers in the police has been a thorny issue for years. In 2008, 35 lawyers in the police, including top police officers, who were earning less than their legal colleagues in public services, sued the government for discrimination in pay.

They won the court case. This prompted the government to increase their salaries to the level of other lawyers in public service.

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