Maziki Thame | Public sector wages and the state of the nation

Most of us, unless we are direct beneficiaries of the chaos around us, should be troubled about the state of our nation.

Our Government tells us our economy is solid, national reserves are the largest since the 1970s, debt to GDP ratio is low (below 100 per cent) and we are headed to debt sustainability (set at 60 per cent), unemployment is at its lowest from Whoppi kill Phillup, banks are making big profits, Kingston has shiny new high-end high-rises, and new highways to move us faster from east to west are on the way.

But while the Government can point to savings, debt sustainability and a reduced jobless rate, the people complain about their wages.

After four years of no movement, minimum wages were increased to less than a measly USD60 per week effective in May. The Government is also now reviewing compensation in the public sector. The minister of finance tells us no one will be worse off. He told The Gleaner that the Government intends to make “a significant adjustment for those at the absolute lowest levels of compensation in the central government”. He did not say that it also intends to make a significant adjustment to those at the top.

Workers at the bottom will move from 600,000 per annum (just a little above the minimum wage) to 900,000, representing a 50 per cent increase in wages. In two years those workers will still be poor. Bear in mind that women are over-represented in low-wage sectors and are a majority of heads of households. Those at the top will move from 9 million to 24 million per annum, representing a 167 per cent increase. Incidentally, this also sets the wages of ministers of government. That will move those at the top into a very comfortable living. Bear in mind that women are under-represented at the top. These figures are meant to make the public sector comparable to the private sector.

If the head of a corporate entity makes $27 million and the customer service representative makes $1.8 million, should the gap in earnings be mirrored in the public sector? While capitalism inherently produces inequality – it is based on profiting from the surplus value of the work of the labourer, should the state seek to mimic capitalist practices? In 2020, according to Oxfam and Development Finance International, Jamaica ranked 120th in the world in inequality. The public sector compensation review will not make us as a nation better off, it will reproduce class and gender inequality.

The state, I would argue, should be acting as a buffer between the vagaries of capitalism and the welfare of the citizen. It should be seeking to reduce inequality, not strengthen it. I would also argue that our leadership does not understand this. In fact, their actions are counter to this.

Consider that the resources of the NHT, the people’s resources, are being transferred to banks and most can neither afford house nor land. The NHT was set up to make housing affordable to the mass and it collects money from us as a tax to do so. That money is held for seven years before we can get a refund at a very low rate of interest. This means the Fund borrows the people’s money at low interest rates ostensibly to act like a ‘pardner’ system to make loans available to the people at cheaper than bank rates.

In reality, because the NHT’s loans to the people cannot buy house or land, joint financing through banks has the NHT lending public funds to banks at low interest rates which are not transferred to mortgagors. Borrowers are charged a higher interest than the NHT rate and the banks make a double profit – from the NHT loan and from the mortgagors’ interest payments.

The prime minister tells us that the NHT is not a charity. On May 20, he said: “There is an illogical thinking amongst our people where it is believed that if we run our business as a charitable organisation we will have the resources to be charitable. I want that point to sink in. The NHT, by virtue of Government policy and certainty by the direction that I have given, has a duty to ensure that it can provide affordable housing.”

But is it giving charity to the rich? And is it being used for partisan gain in West Kingston? And have its resources been used for luxury housing? If the answers are yes, the NHT/the people’s money is being misused. The people are not illogical.

In the everyday, we cannot help but observe continued urban decay, to which the high-rises have added worries about strain on existing infrastructure. Our Government does not share the concern. If we complain about garbage collection we are told to take personal responsibility.“You not going to stick up this Government because of nastiness … . This Government has done everything in its power to provide trucks ... . As a country, we need to have some civic pride,” Desmond McKenzie told the House of Representatives.

Instead of being a champion for the people, the PM sees the role of the state as quelling violence through the militarisation of communities. His interest is not in protecting people in communities but keeping violence in those spaces.

HAND IN HAND

Militarisation and exclusion go hand in hand. It represents violence by the state against people at the bottom, who live in ZOSOs and are the target of military-style policing. It mirrors the structural violence (exclusion, lack of opportunity, lack of access to resources, deep inequality and other forms of injustice) that produce violent crime the state says it wants to control.

But if we are really concerned about violence in the nation, if we are concerned about where we are going, we should be concerned about inequality and injustice. Studies of violence in Latin America point to inequality as well as poverty being at its root. Living in high-end housing may serve as a goal for some but the majority of us will never achieve it. Over 30 per cent of us are still deemed squatters. And so for those who wish Kingston to look like New York City, they should be reminded that unmet expectation leads to frustration, scamming and social unrest. No justice, no peace!

Dr Maziki Thame is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI, Mona.