SAN JUAN: The Jamaican government should offer public employees more than the 7 percent raise that is currently on the table, opposition leader Andrew Holness says.
“I believe that the government can do better, and should do better than the offer they are giving them,” Holness said during a meeting with members of his Jamaica Labor Party.
Recalling that public sector workers have seen their pay frozen since 2010, he said the government’s offer of 7 percent over two years would not even keep pace with the 9 percent increase in prices over the last five years.
“The last time that the police got a wage increase, they got it under the JLP. Not to mention the teachers … and the nurses, as well. It was under a JLP Government. We did that because we understood that, if you are interested in growing the country, you cannot keep the largest portion of your labor force, which is the public sector, under austerity,” Holness said.
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions asked in February for a raise of 30 percent, phased-in over two years, compared with the government’s initial offer of 5 percent over two years.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s administration subsequently boosted the offer to 7 percent.
