Crown Servant Salary Act

P.R.O. LAW CONSOLIDATION
Law Status:	In-Force
Last Consolidated:	2017-12-10

Be it decreed by His Royal Majesty, King August Charles II, by and with the advice and consent of the Government and Peoples of Gotzborg, in this Chamber of Deputies here assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Preliminary

Short Title

1. This Act may be cited as the Crown Servant Salary Act.

Repealed Law

2. The Provision of Salary to Civil Servants Regulation (2012) is hereby repealed.

Commencement

3. This Act shall commence on a date to be fixed by Royal Decree.

Definitions and Interpretation

4. The Royal Chancellor may delegate the various powers, duties and responsibilities of this Act in such manner as he deems fits. Subject to such delegation, in this Act and any related regulation, decree, order or instrument of the Kingdom, a reference to a person or organization shall be taken as a reference to the person or the organization delegated by the Royal Chancellor for the referred matter; and if no such delegation has been made, the reference shall be taken as a reference to the Vice-Minister for Commerce and Industry.

5. In this Act and any related regulation, decree, order or instrument -

“Crown Servant” means a holder of a position of employment within the Royal Government or one of its designated agencies.
"the exchange” means the online utility used for holding and transferring units of the currency of the Kingdom, as defined in the Currency, Exchange and Banking Act.
“government notice” means a bulletin published in the Government Notices forum of the national discussion board.
“payroll office” means the office or agency of the Royal Government authorized by the Royal Chancellor to disburse salary to Crown Servants.
“payroll period” means the period spanning the 25th day of any month to the 24th day of the following month.
“position” means a defined position of employment within the structure of the Crown Service.
“supervisor” means the ranking Crown Servant immediately responsible for overseeing one or more positions or, in the absence of the supervisory position being vacant, the Vice-Minister or Minister ultimately responsible for those positions.

Administration of Salary

Salary in Thalers and deposit thereof

6. A Crown Servant shall receive his salary in Gotzborg Thalers, which shall be deposited only to his designated cash account on the exchange or to his designated account at a domestic bank on his behalf.

7. In the absence of any instruction by a Crown Servant to the payroll officer to deposit his salary to a designated account at a domestic bank on his behalf, the salary shall be deposited to his designated cash account on the exchange by default.

Determination and Publication of Salary Rates

8. The Royal Chancellor is responsible for determining the rate of salary, and for approving any changes thereto, associated with each and every position of employment.

9. The Royal Chancellor shall publish the rate of salary for each position by government notice at least once per fiscal year and, in any event, whenever a change to a rate is approved or a new position defined.

10. The Royal Chancellor shall publish a rate of salary for all positions within fourteen days of commencement of this Act.

11. In determining changes to rates of salary, a Crown Servant may make a personal submission detailing his desired changes, without threat of penalty or impact on his employment security, to the Royal Chancellor, or his delegate, for consideration.

12. The salary rate for the lowest position in the Royal Government hierarchy shall be set at a level reflective of the cost of living in a major centre and in consideration of private sector wages for similar positions within the Kingdom, so as to ultimately provide the holder of such a position reasonable economic freedom.

His Royal Majesty excluded

13. For the purposes of this Act, His Royal Majesty is not entitled to receive a Crown Service salary for his Royal Duties. His Royal Majesty shall instead be entitled to a reasonable grant in lieu of salary, to be determined in consultation with His Office on an annual basis.

14. Where His Royal Majesty chooses to hold a position in addition to His Royal Duties, He may collect additional salary subject to the requirements as defined below in Articles 26.

Accessibility of Records

15. Data concerning the identity of each Crown Servant and the salary entitlement of, and disbursements to, that Crown Servant shall be a matter of public record and a copy of such may be requested by any citizen of the Kingdom upon application to the Royal Chancellor's Office. The Royal Chancellor shall have thirty days to respond to any such application through the provision or publication of the latest quarterly report of the payroll office.

16. Where a Crown Servant is the subject of an investigation into an offence under this Act, the Royal Chancellor, on the advice of the Royal Security Police Service, may contravene Article 15 and withhold any data deemed to be sensitive to the investigation.

Payroll Office

Designation of a payroll office

17. The Royal Chancellor shall designate a payroll office through Order upon the commencement of this Act and may change that designation upon sixty day notice through a future Order at his discretion.

18. Where a payroll office is not currently designated, the Royal Chancellor's Office shall perform its functions.

Responsibilities of the payroll office

19. The payroll office shall -

maintain a record of all payroll submissions from throughout the Royal Government;
maintain a record of all payroll disbursements made to Crown Servants;
disburse salary to Crown Servants in accordance with this Act; and,
provide the Office of Civil Service Employment or its successor with access to its records for human resource tracking purposes.

Reporting obligations

20. At the end of each quarter of the year, the payroll office shall submit to the Royal Chancellor a report identifying each Crown Servant, each Crown Servant's current highest salaried position and a balance sheet showing the total payroll disbursements made during the preceding quarter to each Crown Servant. This report shall be subject to disclosure as per Article 15 to 16, inclusive.

Determination of Salary Entitlement

Determination of salary rate

21. The rate of salary for each position shall be defined on a monthly basis, with an hourly equivalent rate for the position determined based on 4% of the monthly rate payable per hour worked.

22. A salary rate shall be reasonably valued to reflect the defined duties of the position.

23. The rate of salary assigned to any one position shall in no event exceed 90% of the rate of salary assigned to its associated to its immediate supervisory position.

Entitlement to salary

24. A Crown Servant is entitled to receive the salary associated with his positions of employment in accordance with the requirements and limitations of this Act.

25. A Crown Servant holding only one position shall receive the full remuneration of salary associated to that position.

26. Where a Crown Servant is employed in more than one position, he shall receive the full remuneration of salary associated to the highest salaried position held. Remuneration for each additional position shall be made based on hourly time worked, payable at the equivalent hourly rate of salary for that position.

A Crown Servant shall be responsible for maintaining his own log of hours worked in each additional position and for submitting a claim for additional pay to his supervisor for consideration of payment. The payroll office may, through Regulation, implement a clocking-in or other tracking system to aid the Crown Servant in logging his hours.
The supervisor shall be solely responsible to certify, modify or reject the Crown Servant's claim for additional pay and to forward any certification to his Minister of State for payroll or to otherwise provide the Crown Servant with a reasonable explanation as to any modifications or rejection made.
A supervisor receiving a claim for additional pay from a Crown Servant shall forthwith review the claim and, if certified, submit the claim for payment by the end of the current payroll period.

27. A Crown Servant holding a supervisory position shall not be permitted to claim hours worked for additional positions within his office of responsibility. Further, the following positions shall not receive compensation for hours worked in any additional position within the Crown Service, unless it is of military or police rank, due to the responsibilities inherent within each position –

Royal Chancellor;
Minister of State; and,
Vice-Minister of State.

28. The President of the Chamber of Deputies shall be entitled to a nominal monthly honorarium in acknowledgement of his commitment to the administration of direct democracy within the Kingdom.

29. Where a Crown Servant's highest salaried position changes during a payroll period, he shall be compensated on a daily prorated basis for his time worked during the payroll period in the previous such position as well as that worked in the new position.

Payment of salary

30. Each Minister, or where such is appointed, each Vice-Minister shall, on the first day of each payroll period, submit to the payroll office a report detailing the salary obligations of his office including -

the identity of each Crown Servant, including himself, employed under his office;
each Crown Servant's highest salaried position under his office;
each Crown Servant's additional positions under his office;
the total amount of time (days) worked in the highest salaried position;
the total amount of approved time (hours to one decimal place) certified since the previous payroll period to be paid for each Crown Servant's work in additional positions held; and,
a copy of each Crown Servant's application for additional pay to be kept on file by the payroll office.

31. Each Minister or Vice-Minister may delegate their responsibility in subsection (A) to a lesser official within their office; however, in the event of such an official being unnamed or absent, a Minister or Vice-Minister shall ultimately be responsible for ensuring compliance with Article 30.

32. The payroll office, where such a submission has been made as scheduled, is to calculate the necessary salary entitlement of each Crown Servant and disburse the same to the Crown Servant's designated account within seven days of the end of the payroll period.

33. In the event of a late submission of payroll information to the payroll office, the office shall disburse entitled salary for the affected Crown Servants within three days of receipt of the submission where the late submission is made within the first seven days of the new payroll period. A late submission made after the first seven days of the new payroll period shall not be processed until the next regularly scheduled disbursement date.

34. For the purposes of commencement of this Act and the implementation thereof, where commencement occurs on a date within fourteen days of the start of the usual payroll period, payroll submissions shall not be required until the first day of the subsequent payroll period, with Crown Servants receiving back-pay accordingly for any unpaid time caused by the burden of implementation.

Offences

Submitting false claim for additional salary

35. It is a criminal offence for a Crown Servant who holds more than one position, through fraud or false pretence, to make application for, and to subsequently take receipt of, remuneration for time not knowingly worked.

36. The wording of the charge to be used by law enforcement agencies and the judiciary for this offence is -

“On or about the [DD] day of [MMMM], A.D. [YYYY], at or near [CITY] in the (Arch)Duchy of [DUCHY], [FULL NAME OF ACCUSED] did, while holding more than one position within the Crown Service, through fraud or false pretence, make application for, and subsequently take receipt of, salary remuneration for time not knowingly worked in a position additional to his highest office contrary to Article 35 of the Crown Servant Salary Act.

37. Where a court of competent jurisdiction makes a finding of guilt against a Crown Servant for this offence, he shall be liable to a minimum punishment of a fine not less than 1,000 Thalers and not more than 5,000 Thalers, in addition to being required to reimburse the Royal Government the full amount of the funds of which it was defrauded.

Neglect of duty by Minister or Vice-Minister

38. It is an administrative offence for a Minister or Vice-Minister to fail to meet the late submission deadline for payroll as defined in Articles 30 to 34, inclusive, where he has responsibility for a Crown Servant under his direction and where, as a result, a Crown Servant under his direction fails to collect salary for the payroll period, and thereby suffers a real or perceived economic hardship as a direct result.

39. Where a Minister or Vice-Minister is found to have committed this offence by the Royal Chancellor, he shall be liable to a penalty of forfeiture to the Crown of not more than three days salary.

Notes

Chamber of Deputies Hansard Record
Introduction Date:	2013-03-17
Tabled By:	His Royal Majesty
Vote Outcome:	In Favour: 0; Against: 0
Royal Assent Date:	2013-03-17 (Article 28)