Bruce warned

 

• Prime minister urged not to cut public-sector jobs

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

With recent poll findings highlighting his administration's failure to command the confidence of the majority of Jamaicans, Prime Minister Bruce Golding faces a crucial test today in Gordon House as leading trade unionists have warned he must deliver on certain commitments.

"We want to see some plans to forge a pathway to deliver growth in the economy, expand employment, and sustain fiscal prudence, as well as a plan to reduce poverty," said president general of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Kavan Gayle.

Golding is to make his contribution to the 2011-12 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives, and Daryl Vaz, the minister with responsibility for information, said the prime minister would be announcing plans to reform the public sector.

Vincent Morrison, the president of the National Workers' Union, said Golding should abandon any idea of job cuts in the public sector. He warned that this would weaken the economy further as redundancies were still affecting the private sector.

"The public sector has to hold, or it will be chaos going forward," Morrison said. "Don't touch the public sector!" The Government has indicated its intent to reduce the country's wage bill as a percentage of GDP. Morrison said the Government could be forced to cut up to 70,000 of the approximately 117,000 jobs in the public sector in order to bring the wage bill to nine per cent of GDP, as stipulated by the IMF, down from the current 12 per cent. He said the move could be catastrophic.

Golding will make his presentation today against the backdrop of poll results which show that the majority of Jamaicans want to see the back of his Government.

PNP ahead in polls

The RJR/Ian Boxill polls on elections and party standings, conducted April 9-15, 2011, found that 36 per cent of Jamaicans would vote for the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) if an election is called then.

Golding's Jamaica Labour Party, which is in its fourth year in office, would receive 24.8 per cent of the popular vote if an election were called now, the poll found.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent.

Vaz told The Gleaner last night that "the prime minister is not going to alter any policy of Government in order to gain political points". He said the party would be dealing with the poll results in a different forum, and that Golding would today "lay out a vision on the way forward for the country".

Yesterday, Morrison, whose union is aligned to the PNP, said he hoped the poll results would cause Golding to deliver a sobering presentation.

"I hope as a result of this, the prime minister will address the nation with clear policies and programmes designed to make it easier for the workers, to improve the economy, and to get the country back on track," Morrison said.

Helene Davis-Whyte, general secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, said she is hoping that the prime minister "will outline, in detail, the plans hinted at by the minister of finance to grow the economy".

The trade unionists say they want to hear from the prime minister on the matter of the payment of approximately $30 billion owed to public-sector workers.

"My hope and anticipation are that we will see a situation where there is some understanding that will bring closure to the dispute arising from the non-payment of the seven per cent wage increase," Gayle said.

He also called on the Golding administration to slash PAYE-generated taxes. He suggested that settling of the payment of the outstanding wages to public-sector workers would inject a new wave of confidence into the sector, while cutting PAYE would give low-income workers well-needed disposable income.