(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.