PSTOC says job losses not final outcome of its mandate
CO-CHAIR OF the Public Sector Transformation Oversight Committee (PSTOC), Danny Roberts, has said that PSTOC is not presiding over job losses as the final outcome of the public-sector transformation process, but sees the work of his oversight committee as integral to the work of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) and the Economic Growth Council.
He said that conversations with publicsector workers would commence next year, so that they can express freely and fully their concerns, fears, expectations, and desires, and that they are able to satisfy themselves that something is in it for them. He said that public-sector transformation must answer the question that every public servant asks: “What is in it for me?”
Roberts noted that while “the process of public sector transformation will result in job losses for public-sector workers, it is not the ultimate goal of the transformation process”.
According to the PSTOC co-chair, “[For] the final outcome of the transformation exercise to have real meaning, it must seek to create quality public-service institutions that facilitate an environment that is conducive to economic growth and development and leads to quality jobs, and a better quality of life for public-sector workers and the public at large.”
Addressing the annual general meeting of the Urban Development Corporation Staff Association in downtown Kingston last Thursday, Roberts said, “We must, through retraining and skills development, prepare those public-sector workers to seize on the opportunities that will arise through the link between quality institution and economic growth.”
This, he said, is to ensure that job losses in the public sector can be absorbed by the private sector in an expanding and sustainable economic growth environment.
Last week, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told lawmakers in the Lower House that job cuts in the public sector were inevitable.
Holness reminded his parliamentary colleagues that the Government had announced earlier this year that it would close at least five public bodies by the end of 2017.
He argued that as mergers and closures occur in the public sector, and as shared services are implemented, displacements would occur. However, he said that opportunities for growth would be created.