AWaiting wage instructions

The Ministry of the Civil Service is awaiting the final mandate from the Minister who holds that portfolio, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, on how to proceed with the salary and wage negotiations with the trade unions.

That’s the word from Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Civil Service, Alyson Forte. His comments came as he spoke to the media on the sidelines of the Caribbean Leadership Project’s Opening Ceremony for the Technical Working Group Meeting at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa, as he noted the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) had long ago submitted their proposals which addressed both salary and non-salary matters.

“Once I get that mandate I would then either invite the unions to give them that update, or I otherwise might send out a letter telling them what that particular mandate is. But we have had ongoing talks with the NUPW [National Union of Public Workers] in relation to those non-salary issues and they were quite a few, but in time you would hear more,” the Permanent Secretary said.

With that in mind, he said they are awaiting final approval on the non-salary proposals. Referring to the meeting with the NUPW in December last year, PS Forte said a financial proposal was put on the table by the Government and he gave them two scenarios for a one-off payment to public servants.

“I gave them two scenarios for them to mull over so that they and I could kind of form a proposal that we would submit to my principals. They went ahead and met with their group and came up with what they considered to be a counter to what I had offered. I submitted that to my principals and in due course I will get back to them on what my principals have said,” he said.

Government’s suggestions, he said, was two per cent across the board which would have given people at the top a one-off payment of $3000 and the people at the bottom in the region of $400; or two percent at the top, and five percent at the bottom, where public servants at the bottom would receive a one-off payment of $1000. Government’s proposal would result in a $49 million lump sum payment, but following the meeting with their members, the NUPW countered with a $60 million lump sum, for all public servants to receive $2500 each.

Forte indicated to the media that it is only the NUPW that he would have met with, in relation to the one-off payment, which he said, the union had put forward as a coping subsidy.

“[But] it is not quite a coping subsidy but it was meant to put something before my principals that we could possibly look at. Not as a final position, because I’ve made it clear that a one-off payment would not have been a final position, just something as I said for my principals to look at, but we would continue salary negotiations later,” he added. (JRT)