Public sector wage agreement signed at Jamaica House

PUBLIC sector leaders were finally able to put their signatures to an agreement this morning for the more than 100,000 civil servants to receive the long-awaited seven per cent increase which has been owed by Government since 2009.

 At a special signing ceremony at Jamaica House, Prime Minister Bruce Golding assured the public sector groups that the Public Sector Transformation Unit's monitoring committee will be ensuring that Government delivers on the agreement.

Golding also urged Minister of Finance Audley Shaw to ensure that the scheduled dates for payments are kept.

"I will not be of much assistance to you if at some point in time you sat here and witnessed our signing this agreement to say we are going to pay a certain amount on a certain day, if the month before it is due you come to me to say you have a problem," he told Shaw.

The new wage rates will begin to be applied in September this year, covering the period April-August 2011 and the retroactive sums for this period will be paid in two tranches in September and December.

Retroactive sums owed the workers the for 2009 to March 2011 will start to be paid out in June 2012 and extend over a subsequent 26-month period.

The public sector groups had flatly rejected Government's first offer which would see them begin receiving outstanding money in 2013/2014.

In a June 3 letter to the unions, Government proposed that payment of the outstanding amount for the financial year 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 be paid in equal installments over five years.

Source: Jamaica Observer