T&T government maintains 4% wage offer to public servants

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government Friday maintained its position of negotiating a four per cent wage increase for public servants, warning that calls by some trade unions for significant wage increases would lead to government having to find billions of dollars to meet back pay and annual salaries.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert, speaking at the one day forum titled “Spotlight on the Economy 2022,” organised by the Ministry of Finance, said based on the offer being made to the unions, the government would have to pay TT$2.43 billion in back pay.

“The additional annual recurring cost would be TT$419 million per year (and) that is going to increase the public sector wage bill by TT$419 million dollars. And that's just the main stream public service, it doesn't include statutory authorities and state enterprises.

“If the offer is extended to the wider state sector, which is inevitable the cost will almost double to TT$4.66 billion in back pay and the annual additional cost would be almost one billion dollars that would be added to our wage bill,” he told the Forum.

Imbert said that the government has agonised over the salary increase issue “for a very long time,” adding “this is not small money we are talking about here.

“We are talking about increasing the annual recurrent cost of wages by a billion dollars per year. We are talking about back pay of TT$4.6 billion. But as difficult as it would be to find the money for this the government is committed to raising these funds and making these payments”.

So far only one trade union has accepted the government's wage offer, but the unions, including the Public Service Association (PSA), and the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service Association, say the chief personal officer, (CPO), Dr Daryl Dindial had during the latest round of negotiations last month offered a salary increase of four per cent, representing a zero, zero and two per cent and a zero, zero and two per cent for the period of 2014 and 2019.

The unions had originally rejected an initial two per cent offer over an eight year period – 2014-2021and last month during a street demonstration said they were disrespected by the government's four per cent offer as the final offer.

PSA president, Leroy Baptiste, told the marchers “we have a war to win and it could only be won with you.

“That the four per cent is a level of disrespect. Not a disrespect for them (government)…no that's a disrespect to you and what passes for negotiations is even a greater disrespect to workers in this country”.

The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) has already signalled its intention to embark upon some form of industrial action  ahead of the new school term that begins on Monday.

The Finance Minister said that the PSA is seeking a 19 per cent salary increase for its members for the period 2014-16 and that would cost TT$15.8 billion in back pay and the additional annual cost would be TT$1.8 billion.

“If you extend that to the state sector that would cost TT$30.3 billion in back pay and TT$3.4 billion would be added to the annual public sector wage bill.

“This level of expenditure is not possible, it is not practicable, it is not feasible, it is just not possible and these numbers need to be understood. If the government were to accept the proposals made by the major trade union we would have to find TT$30 billion in back pay just for the first three years…”

“These requests are just unrealistic and unsustainable,” Imbert told the forum.

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