Gov’t Keen on Implementing Public Sector Compensation Review

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says the Government is keen on implementing the public sector compensation review, beginning April 1, 2022.

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

Dr. Clarke noted that it was in the interest of the Government, as it was for public sector employees, to undertake the review.

“The Government is constrained from providing quality services to the people of Jamaica if we have a public sector compensation system that is not geared towards the retention of talent. So, we are keenly interested,” the Minister said.

He was speaking during Friday’s (October 29) signing of the 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.

Dr. Clarke said consequent on “structural deficiencies and weaknesses” built up in the compensation system over decades, Jamaica has encountered crises that have weakened governments’ ability to deliver public services.

This, he added, “as we have… focused on the topline [matters] and not on the structural issues”, hence the need to undertake the review.

“This [review] is not something that’s being pushed by the unions. Clearly, the unions… are looking forward to it. But the Government is also looking forward to it,” the Minister further stated.

The review, initially slated to get underway during 2021/22, was deferred to next year due to the adverse impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This, following consultations between the Government and the 11 JCTU member unions representing 50,000 public sector workers, which equates to 50 per cent of the civil service workforce.

The pandemic resulted in the Jamaican economy contracting by 10 per cent in the 2020 calendar year and just under 11 per cent in 2020/21, sparking, among other things, a significant reduction in revenue inflows.

Dr. Clarke said the Government, in presenting its case to the unions, indicated that undertaking the review this year would prove challenging consequent resource constraints resulting from the revenue fallout, coupled with increased expenditures due to the need to address the pandemic, particularly its impact on the most vulnerable persons.

He pointed out that subsequent discussions led to the brokering of the new 12-month “holding” agreement for 2021/22, being financed from available resources, which offers a four per cent salary increase among other provisions.

This, the Minister added, would allow time for the economy to recover, “putting us in a position [to] begin the implementation of the compensation review in the next fiscal year.”

“I am deeply grateful to the Confederation for their understanding of this position that the Jamaican economy and the Government are in. That understanding has allowed us to focus with a fierce degree of momentum on making resources available to attack the pandemic and to provide support for the vulnerable,” Dr. Clarke further said.

He said the Government was keen on settling the outstanding claims and urged unions and bargaining units not yet signing the agreement to take the necessary steps to this end.

“We want to accelerate the negotiations for this fiscal year with all the remaining unions, and we are prepared to make the payments that we have budgeted. We want to do that this [FY] so as not to compromise our ability to start the compensation review, beginning in April,” Dr. Clarke told journalists.