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Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson
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Julian Robinson
By Clinton McGregor
The Parliamentary Opposition is accusing the government of using bullying tactics to scare public sector workers into signing the wage agreement under the compensation review programme.
Jamaica's teachers, policemen, doctors and firefighters are among the groups who have refused to sign, citing anomalies in the restructured pay scales.
Making his budget presentation in the House of Representatives Thursday afternoon, Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson argued that the approach of the Finance Ministry to force a March 31 deadline on the outstanding groups to sign the deal is fuelling discontent.
Mr. Robinson called for Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke to hold further consultations with the outstanding groups in order to negotiate a better deal.
The complaints from the groups, he said, are not just about what they will be paid, but there "genuine concerns" about equity, fairness and the basis on which they have been reclassified.
Mr. Robinson argued that some of the unions also might not have fully understood the changes to be able to properly explain them to workers.
"So you have workers now who are only finding out effectively what these changes mean to them. Many of them, they weren't aware and they feel...that they are being pressured to meet this March 31 deadline, and they feel that if you bully them, they are going to stand up," he declared.
Mr. Robinson dismissed Dr. Clarke's assertion that only a small group of public sector employees have refused to sign the new wage offer.
According to the opposition spokesman, the employees who have not signed are crucial to the operation of the country and total about 40,000 members of the workforce.
They include teachers, police officers, correctional officers, medical consultants and junior doctors, legal officers, probation officers, firefighters, workers at the National Irrigation Commission, National Works Agency, National Housing Trust, and the Meteorological Service.
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