Labour unions have officially requested a salary hike for government workers, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn disclosed on Tuesday.
And while he stopped short of saying whether that request would be granted, choosing instead to outline the challenges the Mia Mottley administration has been facing in recent months, head of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Toni Moore suggested that civil servants were seeking wage hikes against the background of businesses being granted concessions even in tough economic times.
In March this year, the umbrella body for trade unions, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), as well as the National Union of Public Workers served notice they would be going after public sector salary increases to combat inflation and the rising cost of living.
During his introduction of the Pandemic Contribution Levy Bill, 2022 in the House of Assembly on Tuesday Straughn disclosed requests had been made, although he did not identify which unions had made them.
“We have been written by members of the labour union with respect to requesting a salary increase,” he said.
“I’ve seen some commentary within the context of the media which is quite interesting, but suffice to say, that . . . the economy as it stands right now, financing government’s programme at this particular point in time is a challenge.”
Explaining that challenge, Straughn said that over the course of the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the current administration has moved from responding to the medical side of the crisis to the social side which included an increase in unemployment, and then several critical surges in COVID-19 cases.
“And with each surge in cases, the Ministry of Health required more cash to respond,” the Finance Minister stressed.
In addition to the COVID-19 situation, he said, the Government also had to respond to Hurricane Elsa which damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes last year.
“The last six to nine months have been the most difficult period for financing government’s operations because on top of responding to the COVID matters, we then had to turn around and use cash again – financing – to respond to the housing issue caused by Hurricane Elsa.
“The reality is that we have been faced with these two things, plus now an escalation in prices driven by external activity, which we’ve already put some measures in place to try to respond to. All of this in the context of an economy that is still not fully back to pre-COVID-19 levels,” Minister Straughn said, adding that 2022 will continue to be a challenge as long as the Russia-Ukraine war escalates.
He said government’s focus now is on economic growth and finding a balance between activities that will see a return to full employment – people working a full 40-hour week and even overtime.
Until that happens, Straughn said, the cost of living increases – on which trade unions have been basing their calls for wage increases – will continue to be a concern.
However, he said, “as the economy has steadily reopened and is gaining movement, then we anticipate that . . . activity will then translate into full employment and obviously greater levels of wages with respect to person’s take-home pay”.
In her contribution to Tuesday’s debate, Moore, who is the Member of Parliament for St George North, said while some see workers’ requests for salary increases at this time as “unrealistic”, some of those employees were seeing private sector businesses getting “concession after concession” even as large amounts of monies owed to the Government went unpaid.
“It is a natural thing, therefore, that if I as the small man, as the small fish, wants a little extra more, I have a basis upon which to ask it, if Government in its public administration system is extending the hand of fellowship with a person or entity that is less in need than I am,” she contended.
“It is the message that we send that we have to be careful of.”
Back in April, Moore had told Barbados TODAY that the BWU had not ruled out lobbying for pay increases but would primarily focus on securing improved terms and conditions of service for Government employees.
(DP)
The post Unions put in pay hike request appeared first on Barbados Today.