Kristen Gyles | Praises as wages

Bountiful are the praises we shower on our meagrely paid front-line workers for the self-sacrificial work they do. Oh, those beautiful, bountiful praises!

The priorities of successive Jamaican government administrations over the years can be debated, but it doesn’t seem that paying the country’s nurses, police officers and teachers decently has been anywhere near the top of the list. While we can understand that the Government has to attend to everyone who wants a piece of the big money pie, I think there needs to be a realignment of priorities.

Earlier this year, amid the rage of the pandemic, I was intrigued to hear the call from the health minister for retired nurses to dutifully ‘pitch in’ where they could, in light of the overwhelming struggle to keep the proverbial wheels turning. In as early as March, over 70 nurses were said to have migrated to fill posts overseas since the beginning of 2021. This was, in part, what created the shortage. However, instead of appropriately addressing the problem of insultingly low and uncompetitive salaries, the Government began buttering up the nurses by telling them how awesome and beloved they are, hoping that would dissipate their dissatisfactions. It seemed to do the trick, at least for some time. ‘Some time’ has now ended and the nurses are again saying they want more than the proposed 2.5 per cent salary increase the Government has put on the table for public sector workers.

Following what was a clear threat to the viability of the healthcare system, one would think there would have been a commitment to increase the salaries of nurses substantially or to arrange for some other compensative benefit to be accrued by the nursing community. That is, besides a pat on the back for good work. But there was hardly any.

REALITY HIT HOME

Somehow, I was again reminded of the health minister’s request, when I watched the prime minister deliver his ‘thank you’ speech earlier in May, on Teachers’ Day. Working as a teacher at the time, I genuinely wanted to feel the appreciation I was hearing of, but then I remembered how much I was paid just a few days earlier. I’m sure it is always heart-warming for teachers to show up at their schools on Teachers’ Day and get their little goody bags and perhaps a rose or two from their favourite students. However, reality usually hits home by the next day, or if not, the next week when the honeymoon would have ended.

I don’t think the broad-brush approach to salary increases is the way to go. Perhaps – especially in the midst of a pandemic – the Government should consider prioritising front-line workers for meaningful salary increases instead of increasing salaries for all public servants all at once and at the same rate. It is certainly understood that due to the large numbers of front-line workers, even tiny salary increases cost the Government hugely. Notwithstanding that, salary increases for specific front-line worker groups must be prioritised.

Conversations about salary increases for parliamentarians have also only made for bad optics given the context of nurses and teachers having to consider migrating in order to make ends meet. It’s time enough we cut the talks of how front-line workers and other essential service workers put their lives on the line every day, if there is no intention to pay them decently, since compliments, praises and thank-yous can’t pay rent, bills or student loans. It is critical that this point be made especially now, as both the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica have rejected the Government’s recent 2.5 per cent wage increase offer.

MAKE THEM FEEL APPRECIATED

If the work of teachers, nurses and police officers is truly appreciated, they should be paid like their work is appreciated. Nurses’ Day and Teachers’ Day aren’t make up days to fill the gap for the low wages received throughout the year. Clearly, the pudding and juice once a year doesn’t suffice, because teachers and nurses are recognising their value and are leaving for greener pastures. The Government can dig deep to find what it takes to bump front-line workers up the ladder of priority, thus putting an end to the problem, but it insists the little money left in the ‘kitty’ has already been earmarked for more important things and that really the low-pay problem has no solution.

At the root of the problem, however, is the perception that many of these front-line workers have no options. The assumption governments seem to have been making is that these workers will take whatever is handed to them, because they have no choice. But, let’s face it: front-line workers aren’t the only ones holding the blade – the wider public is. And each time these workers take industrial action, it is the public that suffers, so it is in our best interest to see to it that they are equitably treated.

The Government now has a looming crisis where nurses in particular will continue to migrate. As usual, many Jamaicans will blame the ones who leave and will call them selfish and self-interested – not that their opinions will really matter when they find themselves lying on the hospital bed, bawling out on the top of their lungs for the one nurse on the floor to assist them. The public has not been very supportive in rallying with front-line workers when they demand better treatment, anyway, so what can they reasonably expect?

Kristen Gyles is a graduate student at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com.