Gov’t Confident About Implementing Public Sector Compensation Review

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says the Government is confident it will be able to commence implementation of the proposed public sector compensation review in April 2022.

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

Dr. Clarke said this optimism is based on the positive economic outturns recorded for the first seven months of the 2021/22 fiscal year, relative to forecasts by entities such as the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) and Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

“We would have seen the forecast for economic output to expand this year by between seven and 10 per cent. We would have, however, seen [in] the first quarter [from April to June] where the expansion was [14.2] per cent,” the Minister pointed out.

This, he added, following a 10 per cent 2020 calendar year contraction and nearly 11 per cent 2020/21 fiscal year decline, due to the economic fallout resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which caused, among other things, a significant reduction in government revenue inflows.

Dr. Clarke said the rate of recovery so far raises the prospect that Jamaica could rebound to achieve pre-COVID levels of economic output “faster than was originally projected when the pandemic began… by the end of fiscal year 2022/23.”

He was speaking during Friday’s (October 29) signing of a new 12-month 2021/22 Heads of Agreement between the Government and Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) at the Ministry’s offices in Kingston.

Representatives of the Ministry, headed by Dr. Clarke, and the JCTU, led by President, Helene Davis Whyte, who is also General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO), signed the agreement.

Dr. Clarke reiterated that the Government’s strategic intent in relation to the economic shock caused by COVID-19, is to ensure it does not precipitate further crises.

“We have been ‘eyes wide open’ and very strategic to ensure that, to the best of our ability, that does not happen,” he pointed out.

The Minister said part of that exercise has been making sure the Government’s expenditure envelope is flexible enough to respond and provide support and resources to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, among other areas, without compromising overall macroeconomic stability.

“So far, the strategy is working, with the over-performance of the economy, vis-à-vis forecasts for the seven months of the fiscal year to date. You would have seen that revenues performed above what we were expecting and what was being projected, and we have had to upgrade projections,” Dr. Clarke noted.

“Therefore, we are very confident that [once] we can prevent the economic shock from having second order and third order [negative] economic effects, the stability we would have preserved [will provide] the foundation for [more of] the kind of recovery that we [have started] experiencing and will put us in a position to fulfill our commitments to the public sector… [being] to begin the implementation of the compensation review,” he added.

The review, initially slated to get underway during 2021/22, was deferred to next year due to the adverse impact of the pandemic.

Following consultations between the Government and JCTU it was agreed that, based on the circumstances, commencing its implementation should be deferred to April 2022.

The Government and Confederation also brokered the new 12-month Heads of Agreement to provide, among other things, a four per cent wage increase for April 2021 to March 2022.

It replaces the previous four-year agreement, which covered April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2021.

The agreement covers 50 per cent of the public sector workforce, totalling 50,000 employees, who are represented the JCTU’s 11 member unions.

These are the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU); National Workers Union (NWU); University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU); Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP); Jamaica Workers Union (JWU); United Union of Jamaica (UUJ); Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA); Trade Union Congress (TUC); Jamaica Union of Public Officers and Public Employees (JUPOPE); Union of Schools, Agricultural and Allied Workers (USAAW); and JALGO.

Dr. Clarke said the Government wants to work with the remaining unions to fast-track settlements and payments for the public sector workers they represent, this year.

He maintained that this is imperative to facilitate the review’s commencement and not compromise its implementation.

“The Government is ready to make payments in respect of this year by December, [once] we can reach agreements with the remaining groups. We will do what is necessary to put ourselves in a position so that we can begin the compensation review’s implementation in April,” Dr. Clarke assured.