JCSA still restive over compensation issues

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

President of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) Techa Clarke-Griffiths says her members remain restive over the slow pace of implementation of items agreed with the government under the current compensation restructuring exercise.

 

Mrs. Clarke-Griffiths says significant progress has been made over the last year, with the JCSA and the government agreeing on most of the items under negotiation.

 

But she says they JSCA remains on edge about the implementation dates for compensation, as it hopes to complete negotiations by November to give it as well as the government "adequate time to prepare for and to budget for the upcoming financial year". 

 

The outstanding items include the need for the re-instatement of passenger mileage, and increments that were suspended for three years.

 

The association had insisted that that implementation should not take place until all remaining items are agreed on.

 

The JCSA president argued that the government is dragging its feet in the implementation process. 

 

"The government's inability to pay for some of the items in this current budget, issues of increment were not budgeted for, there were outstanding items of mileage which would not have been budgeted for in this current budget, and so therefore, they are having a challenge in incorporaing and finding that extra $10-20 billion to facilitate the payment of those, coupled with the fact that the hurricane would have complicated the matter. However, we remain resolute that those items must be addressed," she insisted. 

 

Mrs. Clarke-Griffiths was speaking in an interview with Radio Jamaica News, following an address at the Manchester Parish Library for the start of the library's fourth annual summer camp.

 

She said the government's delay is causing more hardship on JSCA members, as inflation continues to whittle down their earnings and this is causing unease.