Judges get 50% more pay
published:
Wednesday | October 15, 2008
Sonia Jackson (left), director general of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), listens to Professor Gordon Shirley, director of STATIN, at the institute's launch of the revised Jamaican System of National Accounts and Jamaica Industrial Classification 2005 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, yesterday. At right is Prime Minister Bruce Golding. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
MEMBERS OF the judiciary have received a 50 per cent increase in basic salaries for the financial years 2007 to 2009.
They are to receive retroactive payments from April 1, 2007.
The Independent Commission for the judiciary, which was mandated to make recommenda-tions on salary increases for judges, yesterday submitted a report to Parliament.
The three-member committee, chaired by Patricia Broderick Taylor, concluded that the current remuneration of judges was woefully inadequate. According to the commission, salaries paid to members of the judiciary were embarrassing.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding told his parliamentary colleagues yesterday that judges were becoming increasingly anxious for the increases to be implemented.
Central Kingston Member of Parliament Ronald Thwaites queried whether the report would be referred to a committee of Parliament to consider its contents.
However, Golding argued that a referral to a committee would delay the implementation of the report. He said Chief Justice Zaila McCalla told him that members of the judiciary have been com-plaining about the delays in implementing the salary increase.
"It was sufficiently urgent for the chief justice to address me directly on the matter because of complaints that she was receiving from members of the judiciary," he stressed.
