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There is increasing frustration among Jamaica's public sector nurses and teachers, with them voicing concerns about how they are being treated by the government.
The Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) and the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) are complaining about the tone of wage negotiations and the effect it is having on their members.
The groups have been intensely agitated for the negotiations to proceed and have threatened or engaged in some form of protest.
NAJ President Carmen Johnson said the process has left a bad impression for her association because it seems the government is "not serious about negotiating."
She complained about the lengthy delays between meetings and the months of waiting to get a response from the government.
"Then when you go to that meeting expecting that they will come back with a revised offer, with something else to tell you (they're instead) playing with numbers to say three and three is six, four and two is six," she bemoaned.
She added: "All we are being told is that we must remember that the IMF says and that they are working under constraint and they must keep it at a nine per cent GDP ratio."
Meanwhile, the NAJ is reporting that one of the contested points of discussion in its negotiations with the government is the increased income tax threshold of $1.5 million.
According to Ms Johnson, although it is forming a part of the negotiations, it is not applicable to many nurses.
The increase in the threshold means that many nurses who earn below that amount would not pay income tax.
However, Ms Johnson explains that this benefit is wiped away once nurses work over a certain number of hours.
"When they do overtime, what (happens is) it pushes them in the tax threshold and so you now pay tax. So though you give it with one hand, by the next month, you're taking it back with the other hand," she lamented.
She was speaking on RJR's Beyond The Headlines on Thursday.
JTA
In the meantime, the JTA has also reacted with disappointment at the treatment it has been receiving from the Government.
It's president, Georgia Waugh Richards, said there has been some improvement but not enough.
"We went back to the Ministry of Finance and the ethos changed and we were able to make some amount of progress, albeit that the most critical issue, that of the percentage increase on basic wage, was not touched at all," she explained.
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