For­mer Fi­nance and cur­rent Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert is warn­ing pub­lic ser­vants that their union lead­ers want them to suf­fer by deny­ing them their back­pay.

How­ev­er, the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion’s (PSA) pres­i­dent has fired back, say­ing Im­bert could take the Gov­ern­ment’s four per cent wage of­fer and “shove it.”

Speak­ing at the Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary School Wednes­day evening, Im­bert said Gov­ern­ment is ready to dis­burse back pay to mem­bers of the PSA, but he claimed the ex­ec­u­tive is re­fus­ing to ac­cept their wage of­fer.

“Not on­ly have we of­fered the pub­lic sec­tor unions four per cent for a par­tic­u­lar pe­ri­od, we just of­fered them a cou­ple of months ago, five per cent, that is nine per cent we have of­fered them,” Im­bert told the hun­dreds of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment sup­port­ers in at­ten­dance.

Re­cent­ly, the PSA has ful­ly de­clared its sup­port for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, with both its cur­rent and past pres­i­dents speak­ing on a UNC plat­form.

Im­bert ac­cused the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress of ped­dling what he de­scribed as a false nar­ra­tive that it is the on­ly par­ty to ho­n­our back pay com­mit­ments.

He said he re­cent­ly met a PSA mem­ber who was un­aware of who was re­spon­si­ble for the de­lay in back pay.

“When I go out walk­ing from time to time, I would meet a mem­ber of the PSA. ‘Im­bert where the back pay?’ I’d say, ‘but your leader didn’t sign the agree­ment, the PSA has to sign the agree­ment first be­fore you get back pay.’”

Im­bert said he told the per­son, “That is how teach­ers got back pay that is how po­lice of­fi­cers got back pay, that is how pris­ons of­fi­cers get back pay, that is how fire ser­vice gets back pay, that is how the army gets back pay.”

The for­mer Fi­nance Min­is­ter claimed union lead­ers do not have their mem­bers’ best in­ter­ests at heart.

He chal­lenged the mem­bers to hold them ac­count­able.

“So, I am urg­ing every mem­ber of the PSA, you need to deal with your lead­ers, they are hold­ing back your back pay, every­body else get back pay, ex­cept pub­lic ser­vants be­cause you have union lead­ers that want you to suf­fer,” he said.

Im­bert said that con­trary to the UNC’s nar­ra­tive, the PNM has a his­to­ry of ho­n­our­ing its debts to work­ers, even if it means pay­ing a bill left be­hind by a pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Im­bert said he hoped that the union lead­ers would come to their sens­es.

How­ev­er, PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, “Colm Im­bert must be delu­sion­al to think for a sec­ond that 4 per cent over 6 years is an ac­cept­able of­fer on be­half of pub­lic of­fi­cers.”

Thomas said if Gov­ern­ment can af­ford “hefty” in­creas­es for them­selves, they can af­ford a much bet­ter of­fer for pub­lic of­fi­cers who she said are the back­bone of this coun­try.

“They are hyp­ocrites!” Thomas de­clared.

Thomas said when Im­bert speaks about “suf­fer­ing” he was re­fer­ring to what work­ers have ex­pe­ri­enced at the hands of this gov­ern­ment.

“That be­ing said we con­tin­ue to re­ject four per cent over six years. We re­ject the non-con­sol­i­da­tion of CO­LA (Cost of Liv­ing Ad­just­ment), we re­ject the buy­out of pen­sion­ers’ back pay. Tell them to shove it!”