EDITORIAL
When Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced last month that the public service would be cutting as many as 1500 from its ranks, most of who would be temporary workers, it really was no surprise, as for many years it has been said that the public service was too large. If Government then was seeking to get the country back on track financially, a leaner, fitter public service had to be the order of the day.
But the reality is that job losses are never easy, and what has been mindboggling to those of us looking in from the outside, is that there are hundreds of persons employed in the public service who have no security of tenure. It is unbelievable to think of a man or woman working in Government for 10, 11, 12 or more years and not being appointed, but such is the case for some of those who have no found themselves on the breadline, as the Government seeks to resuscitate the country’s ailing economy and modernise the way we do business in this country.
What that reality should say to us is that it cannot be business as usual as we go through this recovery plan that has been sanctioned by the International Monetary Fund. At the end of it all, we must see a difference in how Government operates and the changes, including the job cuts, must result in the desired outcomes, including improved productivity.
While we appreciate why the unions have called for Government to employ the principle of “last in, first out” as it undertakes its retrenchment programme, and this in many respects is quite fair, one cannot help but wonder if performance should not also have played a factor. The reality is, whether we want to admit it or not, there are some public officers who do not give 100 per cent to their jobs, some not even close to 50 per cent.
We have all heard the stories of workers who take two-hour lunches; who have second jobs or own businesses which they attend to during normal working hours; and those who abuse the study leave provision and sick leave. It is not hard to miss the poor work ethic we sometimes see when we enter government departments, a classic example being workers engaging in personal telephone conversations or even talking among themselves when members of the public are waiting to be attended to.
But to be fair, all government workers are not bad, but the actions of a few do shed a bad light on the whole public service, and the time is ripe for steps to be taken to pull up the standard of all government workers. As Government completes its layoffs, it is imperative that it examines the service and ensures that it does not only achieve the projected fiscal savings, but that it achieves reform in the public service. If after these efforts the delivery of services offered by Government does not improve, and the wheels of Government continue to move unnecessarily slow, then the efforts have been for naught and we would be no better off.
As such, we feel it is imperative that the performance appraisal system that was introduced into the service is truly implemented across the board, from the level of the Ministers right down to the general workers in each and every department. It has been suggested that such has not been the case, but that forum is needed, as it would allow for workers to converse with their supervisors, and for feedback between the two to allow both the workers, as well as the ministries and departments for which they work, to live up to their true potential.