High-level meeting held to discuss public sector wage demands

 

As the island's government-paid workers agitate for increased wages, the National Partnership Council convened a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the concerns being raised by trade unions representing the workers. 

 

Government representatives and representatives of the unions, the public sector, the private sector, civil society and the Fiscal Advisory Committee, attended the meeting. 

 

The meeting was called after the unions representing government-paid employees rejected the government's offer of 0% in year one and 2.5% increase over the remaining three years of the four-year contract. 

 

The Jamaica Teachers' Association and the Jamaica Police Federation have also rejected the offer and warned that their members are restive. 

 

In a statement Thursday afternoon, the Council, chaired by civil society leader Professor Alvin Wint, reported that the meeting focused on the ongoing public sector wage negotiations within the broader context of Jamaica's fiscal position. 

 

Finance Minister Fayval Williams stated that the government is committed to engaging in good faith as it works through the negotiations. 

 

Minister Williams added that it is the government's duty to ensure that the well-being of public sector workers is protected, while also safeguarding Jamaica's hard-won fiscal stability and long-term growth. 

 

But President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), St. Patrice Ennis, maintained that the workers are still owed billions of dollars in unpaid salaries. 

 

"And that the 7.5% that was paid this year must not be treated as a part of the salary offer for the government for the years 25-26 and for 26-27 as per our claim. And must received as we had agreed on in September of last year as back pay for the increments that were suspended unilaterally by the government for the years 22-23, 23-24 and 24-25, and we agreed that it should be implemented in April of this year. And so we had to make that clear. We made it clear to the government that that must be understood by the parties in order to have trust going forward because we have no agreement neither in written form nor in any other form that the 7.5% were to be treated as [an] offer," he outlined.

 

The parties are to meet again next week.