Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Dr. Omar Davies (left), Minister of Finance and Planning, and Wayne Jones (right), vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), sign the second Public Sector Memorandum of Understanding yesterday. Looking on are (from left) Attorney-General, Senator A.J. Nicholson, and JCTU vice-presidents Helen Davis-Whyte and Hopeton Caven (right). The signing ceremony was held at Jamaica House, St. Andrew. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE GOVERNMENT and trade unions yesterday signed an agreement that places a 20 per cent cap on the public sector wage fund over the next two fiscal years, but allows state companies that can afford it to pay their workers more.
While a broad cap is in place on the wage fund, officials suggested that actual increases would range between 13 per cent and 27 per cent over the period, with junior, lower-paid public servants getting the bigger hikes.
Public sector workers were also promised a 'special provision' on the defined wage bill, but precisely what this will be was not spelt out in the publicised agreement.
But in exchange for the wage restraint by the major unions, the Government has promised to:
Ensure economic growth of between three and four per cent over the next two fiscal years;
Hold inflation to no more than 11 per cent this fiscal year and reduce it to single digits by 2007/2008;
Run a public deficit of no more than three per cent this fiscal year, and no higher than one per cent if the Budget is not balanced by the end of 2007/2008.
Yesterday's signing, hailed by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller as a victory for maturity and national compromise, followed a previous two-year memorandum that effectively froze public salaries, and was not without hiccups.
For while key unions, including the critical Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCA) initialed the document, the teachers and nurses unions stayed out of the pact demanding a better deal for their members. The powerful Bustamente Industrial Trade Union (BITU), which has in recent days dithered on the pact, did not sign, its president, Ruddy Spencer, claiming late notice and a prior commitment that had him out of town.
Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), was at the function as an "observer", saying he was awaiting a full response from the Finance Minister about salary concerns raised by his organisation.
It was unlikely, though, that the administration will be able to bend to the demands of those unions demanding more, given the clause insisting that except in circumstances where there is the ability to pay, "no group should be treated more favourably than the groups that are represented under the Memorandum of Understanding'.
However, Nurses Association of Jamaica President Edith-Allwood Anderson remained undeterred, insisting that her organisation stood by its decision to withdraw from the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Union (JCTU) and to negotiate on its own behalf.
Mrs. Simpson Miller clearly chose to sidestep the dissenters in her remarks yesterday, prefering to focus on the significance of the agreement.
"I am very proud that after rigorous negotiations ... the Government and the labour movement could come together (and) we now have a second Memorandum of Understanding," the Prime Minister said.
The agreement, she suggested, could be a fillip for a wider social partnership agreement, which the private sector is attempting to fashion.
"If we can achieve this (partnership), I think Jamaica will finally be on its way to success in every area of national life," she told the gathering at yesterday's signing ceremony at Jamaica House.
Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance Minister who led the Government's negotiation of the agreement, largely echoed the Prime Minister's sentiments.
"This agreement is also of significance because it reflects not just an agreement between Government and the trade unions ... but it indicates what is possible in terms of collaboration between different groups searching for the same objective of improving social and economic status," Dr. Davies said.
Wayne Jones, the president of the civil servants union appealed to the society to give the MoU2 a chance.
"This for us, is one of the best chances ... to secure general societal agreement on how we need to advance the interest of the poor working class people," said Mr. Jones.
The new agreement will cost the Government approximately $15 billion in increased pay and fringe benefits.
