BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS coming out of Grenada states the island's labour unions believe that the proposed one off payment of $650 put forward by the government for the period 2013-2016 is a political gimmick, as it has increased constituency spending in an election cycle.
The unions are calling on the government to pay up the $1,500 they are asking for, but the administration is not budging on its $650 proposal, thus forcing the unions to call a full scale strike action by public sector workers.
On Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 16 and 17), government workers took industrial action forcing the Keith Mitchell-led administration to issue a statement against the strike.
President of the Technical and Allied Workers Union of Grenada, Andre Lewis told SKNVibes News that they agreed to a plan by the government to a one-time payout for the four-year period, and not a salary increase.
“We made a compromise in that rather than going for an increase for the period 2013-2016. We have accepted the government’s principle offer of a one off where we are right now...we are asking for $1,500 for the one off and the government is offering $650.”
Debunking claims that they have jumped the gun and reverted to protest actions, the president explained that they had met with the government’s negotiating team – adding that the talks started back in 2016 - the Labour Commissioner and the Minister of Labour, thus following all industrial procedures required by law before taking strike action.
Though they called off the industrial action for now, there are still plans afoot to continue if their demands are not met, he told SKNVibes.
“We are still opened to resolving this matter amicably. As a matter of fact, the government’s Minister of Labour told us that because he is an extension of Cabinet he cannot go against Cabinets decision. We knew and we have said from day one that going to at least the Minister of Labour had been an exercise in futility. However, we will follow the procedure as required despite the fact that the Minister telling us that for him to make any recommendation that is different to what the Cabinet has recommended, he would have to tender his resignation.”
Adding that they would do what every is necessary to ensure the sacrifice made over the four-year period “is adequately compensated”.
He noted that the topic of adequate compensation is “confusing among different parties”, reminding that 2013 was not part of the initial proposal they put forward – but the union agreed with the government’s plan.
Lewis declared that they had “resounding success” in their two-day strike action.
“We have asked the workers to return to work tomorrow (today) and we would do what is necessary when the time is right in our own timing…”
He stated it is ironic that the government would want to imply that they intend to do something negative to the country, adding that it should not be a question of affordability, “since the government can afford to, but it is more of a question allocation”.
“The government is bent on spending on all constituencies because we are heading into an election. They have had all kinds of advisers and all what we are asking for is part of the pie of the sacrifices that we have made.”
To this end, he noted that they would not allow the government to dictate how the sacrifices they made would be rewarded, emphasizing that it is an issue of “allocation and not affordability”.
The Technical and Allied Workers Union and the Public Workers Union are the two bodies representing the public sector employees in the negotiations.
