BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE salary of civil servants in St. Kitts and Nevis will soon be increased to combat the rising cost of living experienced over the past few years.
This was revealed today (Dec. 10) by the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, during his 2014 Budget Presentation.
Dr. Douglas, who is also the Minister of Finance, declared that the civil servants would receive a 10 percent increase, which would to take effect over the next three years, starting in January 2014.
“We will increase wages and salaries by 10 percent over the next three years, starting in 2014 with an immediate increase of four percent, to be followed by three percent increases in 2015 and 2016.
“Mr. Speaker, I am referring to the courageous and bold partnership we formed as employee and employer to make a success story of our expenditure control measures.
“I am sure you can remember growing up that older people used to say that ‘ungratefulness is worse than witchcraft’. This government will never practice ungratefulness and that is why we were able to negotiate and secure the necessary resources to pay a bonus in celebration of our 30th Anniversary of Independence.”
The Prime Minister also announced the restoration of increment on salaries that were previously frozen.
“Starting in January 2014, we will discontinue the wage freeze and restore increments so that all civil servants who are eligible for incremental payments can look forward to receiving this well-earned payment.”
Dr. Douglas also declared that a new government policy would be in place for reviewing salaries as opposed to past practices.
“In making this announcement, I wish to signal the government’s intention to adopt a new approach to the critical question of public sector wage determination as we move forward.
“This approach will involve a formal review of the Public Sector Wage Bill every three years, as opposed to the past practice of allowing fairly long periods to pass by without adjusting compensation packages.
“The major weakness of this old approach was that it attempted to correct the erosion of public sector wages after the fact. The new policy proposes a more proactive approach to protecting the real wages of our public servants.”
He also announced that similar adjustments would be made to the pension payments of retired civil servants.
