Public-sector workers locked in four-year agreement

ECHOES OF the ongoing dispute between Government and public-school teachers was felt in Parliament yesterday when Opposition Spokesman on Finance Mark Golding accused Finance and Public Service Minister Audley Shaw of undermining the collective bargaining process by insisting on paying unsettled wage rates to teachers and other publicsector workers.

Cabinet had directed that public-sector workers, whose unions had not settled by a specific date, be paid the Government’s offer for the 20172018 financial year by the end of March 2018. Shaw had indicated that retroactive sums from April 2017 would be paid in March and not carried over into the new financial year.

However, in his contribution to the Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Golding questioned the legal basis for making the payment, in the absence of a contractual arrangement to authorise it.

“These are public funds, and must be used in accordance with the law, and not as a tool to undermine the sanctity of the collective bargaining process. This happens in dictatorships and should never happen in our democracy,” said Golding.

He charged that this move was a “big disrespect” to the unions and a violation of the International Labour Organization Convention 98 of 1949 to which Jamaica is a signatory.