Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 22, 2016 (SKNIS): Several business places in St. Kitts and Nevis have heeded Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris’ call to upgrade PEP workers, which has resulted in 58 persons receiving full-time employment in those establishments.
On the heels of several requests for this action, including his budget presentation of December 15, 2015, Prime Minister Harris acknowledged that the business community complied and was to be commended.
“I want to thank all those private sector entities that have agreed to move them from PEP, where they were being paid minimally by the government to now full time employees receiving higher earnings,” he said. “Thanks to Team Unity, these former PEP employees will get better wages, they will now have an improved status, including the improved probability of qualifying for loans and visas.”
Other strategies employed by the Government of National Unity to upgrade the standard of living of residents which falls under what has been termed the prosperity agenda, is what Prime Minister Harris described as having workers “weaned off the PEP and into higher employment.” One such approach is through the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis (DBSKN) by means of a special tranche.
“So whatever we provide to the bank, we will say “x” amount must be reserved for people who are on the PEP, and who now are at a position, have a business plan which says that they can move from being a minimum earner to earning their own keep,” the Prime Minister said, again committing his government to restructuring and reorganizing PEP.
Prime Minister Harris emphasized that “the minimum standards are not good enough for us in St. Kitts and Nevis, and we must help them to get on the path to prosperity, slowly and surely.” He addressed PEP workers directly.
“I want to say to all PEP workers in the private and public sectors that Team Unity will continue to work for you,” he said. “We want you to do the very best that you can.”
Another strategy employed by the government was the absorption of certain qualifying PEP workers into the public workforce. Prime Minister Harris explained the criterion.
“Those (PEP) in the public sector could be assured that when vacancies arise we will give consideration to their permanent placement,” he said. “But of course preference will be given to the best of these workers, because, we want only the best in the public service. And what are some of the yardstick: punctuality, attitude, aptitude and your responsiveness to service excellence. So if you’re on the job and you’re working well and you are showing all the desirable attributes, you stand a good chance once a vacancy arises. And especially those who are involved in the maintenance of our physical environment, we want them to live up and to do well. We still have issues of attitude and discipline in that aspect of the work, we still have persons who do not work, or come to work too late and leave too early thereafter and expecting to be paid, and we will not countenance it, we will not allow that kind of waste of the public resource to take place.”
Prime Minister Harris informed that EC$167.9 million had been spent on maintaining PEP.
“That is what the PEP has cost us and you will recall from the budget presentation, where the Minister of Education had made the point that the CDB [Caribbean Development Bank] in its analysis of the programme had indicated that only about 130 persons received any form of training under that programme,” he said.
He also reminded that Judith Gold, Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department had conveyed that her organization was “not in favour of the permanent upkeep of the PEP.”
As such, the absorption strategies were being deployed while complying with the IMF’s advice.
“I am pleased to report that our efforts to reduce this hugely unsustainable drain on the public purse have borne some fruits,” Prime Ministers Harris said. “I want to thank those private sector entities that have responded positively to our urging that they take on their payroll full time, those PEP workers that have been contributing to their businesses for over a year. It is neither fair nor healthy that the government should, through the PEP programme, subsidize the payroll of some private entities while some are denied. This creates an unlevel playing field and the development of a parasitic class.”
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