Salary payments for SERHA employees delayed

Employees of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) have been advised that there will be no disbursement of salaries today, as was anticipated. 

The information was reportedly communicated via an email from the Ministry of Health and Wellness late Monday and concern raised by Jamaica Civil Service Association President O'Neil Grant during a Zoom discussion with SERHA staff Tuesday morning. 

"Yes, salaries will be delayed. We're trying to pay them tomorrow," SERHA's regional director, Errol Greene, said when contacted by The Gleaner.

Grant told more than 250 participants on Tuesday's Zoom call that the union has been trying without success to get an update on why the advisory was issued.

“I'm yet to get an explanation. I need to get that to say, 'Well, this is what we have been told'. I've asked them what assurances are we getting that tomorrow we're not going to hear the same story,” Grant said. 

“Those are the kinds of questions I've been asking on my members' behalf because I don't want to be the one to tell you that it has not been paid because… That's not what we want to do. We want to say that we have learnt that it has not been paid and we have gotten the assurances that it will be paid,” he added. 

In the same breath he criticised the finance ministry, noting that it has been ineffective in its communication, even as it implements the new compensation system for public sector workers. 

He said that the union has borne the brunt of the criticisms from public sector workers and has asserted that it will now go on the offence in changing the negative narrative. 

A week ago, finance minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, reported that there would be errors with some salaries this week, amid growing anxiety over the outcome of the implementation process. 

“No matter what, the computer might generate next week, and I tell you from now, the computer might generate in some cases an aberration or an error… We want you to take comfort and confidence in the assurance that we have given unscathed in front of a TV camera, in front of a radio microphone, in communications online and right here live and direct that there is a minimum net increase that every member of the public sector will receive and that amount is 20 per cent on a net basis,” he said then. 

The 20 per cent increase covers the three-year implementation period. 

- Kimone Francis

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