IN JAMAICA: Unions reject Govt's 5% pay increase offer... No way! Wage talks resume next Thursday....The 11 unions have jointly submitted claims for improvements in the workers' wages/salaries and working conditions, ending some six years of a wage freeze in the public sector.

BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, March 27, 2015   

THE Government failed to negotiate the first hurdle on its way to a new labour agreement with its rank and file employees yesterday when an initial five per cent pay increase offer was rejected by trade unions.

No Way JA

The Jamaica Observer was told that the Ministry of Finance made an initial offer of three per cent in the first year, and an additional two per cent in the second year, of a new two-year deal, which Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips had said should be concluded by next Tuesday.

Observer sources also said that the unions are demanding that a number of outstanding items from their 2012/2015 Heads of Agreement should be resolved, prior to signing a new agreement.

The 11 unions have jointly submitted claims for improvements in the workers' wages/salaries and working conditions, ending some six years of a wage freeze in the public sector. The new agreement will cover two years, unlike the previous two contractual agreements which were for three years. It will also possibly perpetuate the one-off payment which the Government offered as a carrot in 2013 to induce the workers to accept a further wage freeze.

The trade unions want the Government to continue these payments, but increase it to $50,000 per annum (from the current $25,000 per annum) at least for the next two years. However, the issue could be one of the early sticking points, as the Government is hobbled by the International Monetary Fund's focus on public sector salaries falling to nine per cent of GDP by the end of 2016/17. more