Back-to-School Support for Lowest Paid Public Sector Workers

Public sector workers, who earn salaries at the lowest levels, will receive support for back-to-school expenses from the Government.

This was announced by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, at a virtual press conference on Tuesday (July 12).

“We are working to ensure that we will have in place, a programme that persons who earn at the lowest levels in the public service can be assisted with back-to-school support in the same way we’re assisting non-Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) students with support,” he said.

Dr. Clarke noted that this support, which will target persons earning $600,000 or less per annum, is being offered ahead of the completion of the public sector compensation review.

“The new compensation…is unlikely to be in place prior to those back-to-school expenses, which we know will be elevated given global inflationary pressures,” he said.

The Minister said he will provide further details about the intervention shortly.

In the meantime, Dr. Clarke said the discussions with unions, bargaining groups and professional associations regarding the public sector restructuring “has been going well.”

“We have completed first round consultations with all public sector unions and bargaining groups, and we are progressing with second round consultations,” he said, noting that more updates will be provided at a later date.

The public sector compensation review is intended to overhaul the structure of salaries and other emoluments in the public service to make it more equitable.

This exercise will simplify the current complicated 325 salary scales and eliminate most of the 185 allowances.