PM urges public sector workers to be reasonable

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging public sector workers and their unions to be reasonable in how they press their case for adjustments in wages and salaries.

Holness is charging that there is no reason for workers to take actions that would dislocate the state and the country's growth.

“It is not logical; it doesn't make sense for us to kick over our own pail of milk. I urge reason,” he said while speaking this morning at the installation of Ian Forbes as Custos of St Andrew.

“We have gotten this far because we have managed the finances of the country so well that the average Jamaican does not have to contemplate taxation. We're now at a point where we can start to address our remuneration and labour issues.”

Public sector workers have expressed frustration with the government over outstanding wage issues.

They are also opposed to the government's new compensation review.

Upset workers at the National Water Commission were off the job all day on Tuesday and most of Wednesday, causing thousands of customers including essential services to be left without water.

Today, air traffic controllers have downed tools over protracted salary issues.

And the 30,000 government workers represented by the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) have agreed to put the government on notice that strike action by them over wage reforms is imminent. 

Holness emphasised that the change to compensation in the civil service is necessary to make it more efficient, noting that the exercise is not intended to make any worker worse off.

He argued that the stance taken by the workers and their unions is not the right approach.

“I urge our partners in the unions, in the public service, there is no secret reserve of resources that, if the plane stops flying, tourists stop coming, our hospitals are shutdown and our schools stop... teaching, that somewhere we can go and take it up and present it.

“It is your work that keeps the planes coming in, it is your work that keeps the water flowing, it is your work that keeps the students in schools, that grows the economy, that gives the revenues which we are now discussing how those revenues should be shared. Make the connection. And I'm talking now to all Jamaicans, let us just work as one country with one vision instead of ripping our society apart unnecessarily,” said Holness.

While noting that changes in the public service have historically when continuous, Holness appealed to stakeholders to utilise established mechanisms to seek to have issues resolved.

He stressed that the government remains committed to its partnership with stakeholders and continues to engage in negotiations.

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