22. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, for the period beginning on 1 January 2018 and ending on 31 December 2020—

(a) no increment shall be awarded to a non-covered public servant, and

(b) the operation of the pay scale that applies in respect of a non-covered public servant shall stand suspended,

and with the effect that—

(i) the point on that pay scale that shall be applicable in respect of a non-covered public servant on 1 January 2021 shall be that which was applicable on 1 January 2018 in respect of him or her, and

(ii) the operation of that pay scale, on and from 1 January 2021, shall be by reference to service of the public servant on and from 1 January 2021, but this is subject to subsection (2).

(2) Subsection (1)(ii) does not operate to exclude for the purpose of the operation of the pay scale so much of the service of the public servant, before 1 January 2018, as would have been reckoned for the purpose of the next immediate increment that, but for the suspension of the pay scale by virtue of subsection (1), would have fallen to be awarded to him or her on or after 1 January 2018.

(3) The reference in subsection (1) to the pay scale that is applicable in respect of a public servant (being a public servant to whom the amendment hereafter mentioned relates) is a reference to that pay scale as it stands adjusted by virtue or in consequence of the amendment of the No. 2 Act of 2009 made by the Act of 2013 and the Act of 2015.

(4) For the avoidance of doubt, subsection (1) has effect in relation to a pay scale that, in consequence of a public servant’s appointment or promotion to a position after 1 January 2018 (but before 1 January 2021), falls to be applied subsequent to 1 January 2018 as it has effect in relation to a pay scale that applies to a public servant on 1 January 2018, but with the substitution in that subsection for the reference to 1 January 2018 (where it secondly occurs) of a reference to the date of such appointment or promotion of the public servant.

(5) References in this section—

(a) to an increment that may be awarded to a public servant are references to an increment, provided for in the applicable pay scale, that may be awarded to the public servant subject to there being satisfied the one or more conditions that are required by the pay scale, or a written statement governing its operation, to be satisfied before an award of such an increment may be made, and

(b) to a point on a pay scale,

shall be construed accordingly.