EDITORIAL - Serious problems remain on the labour front

That the Government appears to have settled one aspect of its pay quarrel with public-sector nurses is, on the face of it, a positive development. At the very least, it should mean some calm on the labour front, assuming the administration is able to keep its word and in October pay the nurses $525 million of the allowances it still owes on their 2008-2010 contracts.

No one should believe, however, that the Government does not still face serious industrial relations problems, much of its own making, which is surprising, with so many senior members with backgrounds as trade unionists.

For instance, the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ) has made no secret of its continued unease over the Government's delay with getting on with the reclassification of jobs among other health-sector groups, which will have implications for salary adjustment. Such an exercise has been completed for nurses, but can't be implemented, the Government says, until the wider project is done.

Edith Allwood-Anderson, who has been a tenacious advocate on behalf of her constituents, may be stepping down as president of the NAJ, but the Government can't count on her replacement being a benign, less aggressive soul in pushing the interest of nurses. In that respect, the finance and public service minister, Audley Shaw, and his counterpart in health, Ruddy Spencer, have to move with urgency in completing the review, and displaying the surety and tact that have eluded the Government for much of its three years in office.

But the nurses are not the only public-sector employees with whom the Government has to contend. In fact, this settlement with the NAJ may serve to put on boil the simmering discontent of all public-sector groups over the freeze on salaries imposed last year.

That meant that they have not received the 7.5 per cent pay hike that was negotiated for their 2008-2010 contracts.

The reason for the Government's decision may be explainable. Faced with a fiscal crisis and a deficit that was heading towards 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), the administration could not add another $9 billion, or so, on a wage bill of nearly $128 billion, or around 12 per cent of GDP.

Contractual obligation

What was unfortunate was the unilateral imposition of the freeze. The court, however, has held that the frozen payments remain a contractual obligation that has to be settled, a fact that until that decision was hazy.

It is important, in the circumstances, that the Government approaches public-sector unions with a sense of respectful engagement on the broad economic issues facing the country and the necessary difficult decisions that have to be taken.

The administration must be aware, too, that it approaches these talks with, at least for now, devalued political stocks. This is a hold-over from its handling of the Christopher Coke extradition and the obfuscation and half-truths over the hiring of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby the Americans on the Coke matter.

The bottom line: tact and honesty are necessary if it is built on the gains with the nurses.

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