A new regulation has been introduced, permitting civil servants to perform official duties during non-office hours as the work arrangement in some government offices makes it challenging for some employees to complete their tasks during standard office hours.
Speaking with Sun, an official from National Pay Commission said some employees undertaking technical work, such as IT officers and maintenance officers, are sometimes unable to carry out their duties during office hours.
In this regard, the official detailed that it is not feasible to carry out technical works such as software updates during office hours.
As such, the flexibility regulation will permit civil servants employed in such permits to carry out their official duties during non-office hours. According to the official, the work carried out during non-office hours will be considered as work carried out during office hours.
“For example, if an IT officer reports to work at 4:00pm in the evening, it will be considered their official working hours. The work they do during this time will be considered as work they carry out during office hours,” the official detailed.
With the absence of such a regulation prior to this, employees such as maintenance staff or IT officers were required to report to work from 8:00am to 14:00pm during the standard government office hours, but often performed their official duties out of office hours on overtime allowance. 
The flexibility regulation brings an end to this.
Notably, the salaries of over 20,000 civil servants, including administrative staff in the judiciary and councils, were increased under the government’s pay harmonization policy on November 1st.
However, some civil servants have raised concerns about a pay decrease resulting from pay harmonization. This is due to capping overtime allowance.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has instructed the Pay Commission to hold discussions with all government offices and address any existing concerns.
Finance Ministry has stated that the overtime allowance was capped at 10 percent of the salary to encourage civil servants to adhere to a healthy work-life balance.