Dionne Rose and Monique Hepburn, Staff Reporters
PUBLIC SECTOR workers can expect a no-wage-freeze policy during the next financial year, which starts on April 1, following the expiration of the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced the new arrangement yesterday.
"We are pleased that the unions have indicated their readiness to engage in meaningful discussions on a new MoU," said Mr. Patterson. "This is a cardinal pillar of our economic strategy."
"While a wage freeze is no longer to be repeated, the levels of increase must enable the presentation of a budget for the New Year which is fiscally responsible," Mr. Patterson said in a prepared text delivered last night during the opening of a Jamaica Stock Exchange investment conference held at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay.
ADJUSTABLE SALARIES
He noted that the decision was made at a Cabinet retreat two weeks ago in which it was fully recognised that salaries and allowances have to be adjusted inflation levels.
Yesterday, Lambert Brown, newly-elected president of the University and Allied Workers' Union (UAWU), confirmed, "We agreed that the party would work towards another MoU which would not include a wage freeze."
He told The Gleaner that a technical team was set up to discuss another memorandum of understanding (MoU) for public sector workers at yesterday's meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Public Sector MoU. The meeting was held at the Ministry of Finance offices at Heroes Circle in Kingston.
Mr. Brown disclosed that the trade union team would comprise himself; Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association; Helen Davis-Whyte, general secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers; and Wayne Jones, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association, who would lead the team.
Mr. Brown said a similar body from the Government, led by State Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, will also meet with the labour group.
This team will be receiving proposals for wage increases and will discuss the macroeconomic impact increases would have on the economy and employment levels, he said. He, however, noted that this time around, the trade union would engage in intensive dialogue with their members before signing any other agreement.
