Bhutan’s Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) has announced a suspension of the Public Service Early Retirement Scheme (ERS).
The Commission stated that anyone who applied for the scheme after 28 December 2022 must continue working.
This brought an immediate backlash from workers who said the date was arbitrary and unfair.
Journalists said they’d learnt that the ruling affected a considerable number of Public Servants, though the exact figures were not available.
An RCSC official said the exact figures were with individual Agencies.
The suspension did not affect those officers who had already exited the system before 28 December.
However, A Public Servant who did not want to be named said the RCSC should reconsider its decision towards those applicants who had already had their early retirement approved at Agency level and had made all their arrangements.
The RCSC official said the decision had been forced on the Commission because of the difficult financial situation of the Government.
He did not know when or if the ERS would be resumed at a later date.
“The ERS was instituted in 2006 for efficacy,” the official said.
“However, it was found that the scheme did not serve its intended purpose while adding costs to the Government exchequer,” he said.
“The Commission has decided to suspend the ERS while it reviews its entire policy on early retirement.
“It may be that a new scheme will be developed that better aligns with ongoing Civil Service reform.”
Thimphu, 7 January 2023
