Finance Minister Calls For Patience To Complete Review

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, is appealing to public-sector employees for patience and calm regarding the compensation review, noting that the consultative process is under way.

“We understand your apprehension and fear… . We know you have been hearing things, sharing figures, viewing calculations, and there may be some misunderstandings about how this will all work.

“It is certainly possible that in some instances you are receiving partial and incomplete information, out of context. I humbly ask that you avoid conclusions at this point,” he said during a national broadcast on Sunday (May 15).

Several public-sector employees took industrial action last week to protest about the slow pace of the compensation review.

The Finance and the Public Service Minister said things will be much clearer once the consultations with unions or bargaining groups have been completed.

Dr. Clarke informed that the Ministry has already met with 45 of 47 central government bargaining groups and unions.

He noted that an opportunity will be provided for feedback that will be considered in the second round of consultations, which will shortly begin. He added that there is an established mechanism through which any concerns, misconceptions or misunderstandings can be addressed.

“Please take us at our word that no public-sector employee will be worse off. Some persons have responded to this assurance with calculations, valid or invalid, that supposedly demonstrate a decline in net pay as a supposed refutation of this assurance. This is misplaced.

“We are aware that, in any set of proposals designed to cover 110,000 public-sector employees, there could be cases where the proposed changes lead to less net pay. What the assurance instead means, however, is that wherever, through reasoned, objective and data-driven feedback, it can be proven that someone would indeed be worse off, we will work to find a fix,” he said.

The public-sector compensation review is intended to overhaul the structure of salaries and other emoluments in the public service. This exercise will simplify the current complicated 325 salary scales and eliminate most of the 185 allowances.

Meanwhile, Dr. Clarke said engagement with public bodies will commence once the discussions have concluded for central government.

Given the current timelines, he said, it is anticipated that this will occur within the next six months, similar to the timeline provided to the National Water Commission.

“We need the same patience which allowed the hard-working teams to complete four years of work, setting up the policy framework for this reform, engaging the public sector about its key elements, procuring and engaging the services of multinational consultants, collecting and analysing data on 110,000 jobs, designing and completing surveys, modelling, forecasting and communicating,” he said.

In the meantime, Dr. Clarke said the Ministry is further strengthening the partnership with trade unions and bargaining groups “with whom we have achieved tremendous things over the years”.

“We have approached the restructuring of public-sector compensation with ambition. Working with our partners in the trade unions and bargaining groups we are doing what has never been done before in Jamaica. The public sector has been through a long night and the day of reform finally approaches, but my fellow Jamaicans, it is always darkest just before dawn.

He noted that the country’s economic recovery can be easily interrupted and reversed if services are disrupted due to industrial action. “Such a reversal would set Jamaica back tremendously, costing jobs. This would negatively impact us all from the decline in government revenues that would follow and the cuts in budgetary expenditure that would then become necessary. Jamaica cannot afford this,” he said.