Negotiating terms and conditions for a bargaining period that extends retroactively to 2014 was always likely to be difficult and complicated. There are so many factors to be considered as Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Dr Daryl Dindial and the 11 unions representing the Government’s 90,000 employees try to hammer out new collective agreements.
Long before the negotiations started, Finance Minister Colm Imbert had warned that the Government cannot afford to increase wages in the public sector.
In addition, in a statement in Parliament some months ago announcing the start of the public sector wage negotiation, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that the wage increases had already been calculated by the CPO’s Office.
There was no indication of a change in that position when Minister Imbert delivered the Mid-year Budget Review last Monday, although he did announce that some of this year’s $1.98 billion revenue surplus will be used to pay the public-sector wage increases.
But the unions still had unrealistically lofty expectations, judging from their angry rejection of the CPO’s offer of no increase for 2014-2017, one per cent for 2018, no increase for 2019-2020, and one per cent for 2021.
There has already been a threat from the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), bargaining agents for daily paid workers, to forcefully reject that offer by shutting down the public sector.
The two per cent offer has also been rejected by other unions, including the Public Services Association (PSA) and the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) and the T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) may follow suit.
It is likely that in the coming days, these unions will embark on their usual protest actions which they describe as periods of “rest and reflection,” but which are in fact sick-outs intended to bring the public sector to a standstill.
That is the last thing this country, which is still trying to recover from the losses of the COVID-19 pandemic, can afford.
Although Minister Imbert was able to deliver some unexpectedly good news about the health of the economy in his midterm presentation, the priority, for now, is on debt reduction.
The union’s expectations for wage increases must be considered against the backdrop of a public sector wage bill that is approximately $20 billion a year, or about $1.5 to $1.7 billion a month. At least half of the Government expenditure is used to cover public sector salaries.
That is why the current negotiations with the CPO should include an honest assessment of whether the increases in wages, salaries and benefits being demanded by public sector workers will yield any return on investment for the State.
T&T needs a public service that is structured to meet the demands of the 21st century. The low productivity and poor service that plagued the sector for decades must be eradicated and systems refined and restructured to produce more efficient and effective ministries and state entities that can produce improved delivery efficiencies and revenues.
The unions can assist in the creation of that modern and efficient public sector by participating in more creative bargaining that can yield improved conditions for workers in exchange for enhanced services and productivity for the nation.