Civil servants restive after politicians take massive pay raise
The Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) says normalcy cannot be guaranteed in the public service if the Government fails to address its claims under the compensation review.
“The JCSA is aware that the vast majority of the 30,000 membership are currently restive and in light of this, normalcy cannot be guaranteed if these outstanding issues are not immediately addressed,” the union said.
Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told Parliament on Tuesday that the prime minister’s salary will climb to $25.3 million per year in 2024. The salaries of all parliamentarians will rise astronomically, and so too those of local government representatives.
The JCSA described the timing of the announcement of salary increases for the political directorate as “unfortunate”. It said that while it is customary for the salaries of parliamentarians to be aligned to that of the most senior civil servants, “This announcement does not sit well with our membership consequent to the numerous unresolved anomalies that have been presented to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service by the JCSA on the implementation of the Compensation Review.”
The association said it has put forward several outstanding issues arising from the implementation of the compensation review which are yet to be addressed by the finance ministry. These include a call for the reinstatement of performance increment; the reinstatement of duty allowance; the reinstatement of passenger mileage and an increase in the income tax
threshold.