Wage agreement no victory for Gov’t – DCS rep
DESPITE INKING a wage agreement on behalf of the senior uniformed officers within the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Leslie Campbell made it clear that their acceptance of the four per cent wage increase offer should not be interpreted as victory for the Government.
He served notice that come next year, the officers would be pushing for the Government to deliver on all aspects of its contractual arrangements, in light of the sacrifices endured by workers under the pandemic.
“It is not that we are settling with the four per cent because April 22, we are expecting to have the compensation review rolled out in its full extent, whether there be another pandemic or disaster. Whether you cut health, you cut security, you cut somewhere, but we are expecting that April 2022, we will have the compensation review for all of us,” he said. “We have been patiently waiting, we have been humble and we understand. Because of this pandemic, all of us suffer.”
Campbell thanked the finance minister on behalf of the unions present during yesterday’s ceremony.
“Light bill is going up; gas is going up, when it comes down back is by 25 cents, 15 cents. We understand that everything has gone up and so this four per cent is just the tip,” he added.
Yesterday, the finance minister led the signing of a heads of agreement for the contract period between the representatives of certain public sector workers at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service’s National Heroes Circle head office.
Representatives of at least 14 groups signed, bringing to 25, the number of workers’ groups which have accepted the Government’s offer of four per cent on wages and salary-related allowances for the contract period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.
The Nurses Association of Jamaica, the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association and the Jamaica Police Federation are among the groups which are yet to sign. Clarke on Friday appealed to them to fall in line. “I just urge and offer again an invitation to the others, which are still consulting with their members, to support Jamaica in coming to an agreement on compensation for this year, so that we can be in a position to implement the compensation package review, beginning in April 2022. The review is all planned for it to begin in April 2022 and you would have played a key role in allowing us to do that,” he told the workers’ representatives.
“It should be clear to all Jamaicans that our ability to pay for the 2021-2022 increases and also do the compensation increases in the same year is really not feasible. So if we carried forward the increases for this year into next year it would have compromised our ability to implement the compensation review,” he said during the signing ceremony.