THERE WAS always going to be an overlay of partisan politics regarding any signing by the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) of a new agreement between public sector unions and the administration to limit the pay demands of government employees. After all, the BITU is aligned to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and it is getting close to a general election.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller could very well call one within a matter of months hoping to take advantage of her personal popularity.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Ruddy Spencer, the president of the BITU has said that his union will not sign the latest Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today between the Government and most of the unions representing public sector workers because of something to do, in so far as we can make out, with the time available for his senior officers to review the agreement. We would agree with anyone who said balderdash!
Mr. Spencer's senior deputy, Dwight Nelson, is the JLP's key spokesman and the Shadow Minister of Information. But from here it also gets a bit funny or perhaps clearer.
Mr. Nelson is also the president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), the umbrella labour group, which negotiated the MoU, that will give government employees salary hikes of between 13 and 27 per cent for the next two years, provide a fund for education loans and tie the Government to certain economic performance and other targets. Under the previous compact, which expired in March, salaries were frozen for two years.
Given the political flak that he took inside his union and party when he personally negotiated the previous MoU, it is not surprising that Mr. Nelson preferred not to sit at the table directly for this one. Yet, he remains president of the JCTU and cannot plead ignorance of the actions of those who negotiated on the organisation's behalf. Neither would we expect Mr. Spencer to claim that he has been kept in the dark on the elements of the pact by Mr. Nelson nor that as a senior member of the JCTU he is totally out of the loop. It seems to us that there are political considerations beyond the economic imperatives of the MoU that are at work here.
We note too that the nurses and teachers unions have pulled out of the JCTU, arguing that it was not negotiating in their interests. Which raises a significant point about the long-term efficacy of such agreements.
Restraining wage demands helps to constrain the public sector deficit and enhances macroeconomic stability. And this is achieved without the need to cut public sector jobs, 15,000 of which were saved by the previous agreement. The question, however, arises as to at what cost.
It seems to us that rather than these agreements, which may have the effect of locking in public sector inefficiencies, it may be prudent to determine the optimum size of the public sector, perhaps cut jobs to suit the requirements and pay fewer at higher levels so as to retain the best.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
