raphael.lall@guardian.co.tt
Public servants can be categorised as the “working poor” after almost a decade of no salary increases coupled with high inflation.
President of the Public Services Association (PSA) Leroy Baptiste said the impoverishment of public servants has resulted in the disappearance of T&T’s middle class.
Two weeks ago, Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Dr Daryl Dindial made a wage increase officer two per cent over eight years for public sector workers.
With the next round of negotiations with the CPO set for June 10, Baptiste said the PSA will stand by its original proposal for a 25 per cent increase for the period 2014 to 2016. He said the union totally rejected the CPO’s proposal because it is out of touch with the economic reality in the country.
“Inflation reduces the value of the salary. As the prices of goods and services go up, the value of the worker’s salary goes down. An indexed COLA was aimed at stabilising the value of your income,” he said
Baptiste cited data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) which showed that headline inflation between 2014 to 2021 was 21.8 per cent, food inflation was 44 per cent and the price of diesel increased by 161 per cent.
He said that means a worker spending $100 on certain food items in 2014, is now spending $144 on the same item. A public servant who earns $7,000 monthly now spends 75 per cent of his salary on food.
Baptiste also highlighted how difficult it is for a public servant to buy a house on the open market.
“Go to the bank and ask what is the qualifying salary for purchasing a house. The cost is $1.5 million. To qualify for that a person needs a monthly salary of $17,000 and they will get a 30-year mortgage. A public servant’s salary on average ranges from $5,000 to $7,000 monthly. That’s why we call them the working poor as they cannot meet their basic needs. All a public officer can do is apply to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and became one of the 200,000 applicants hoping to be called in the next 20 years,” he said.
The result of this economic inequality is a widening of a gap between the have’s and have not’s.
“They are doing this by pauperising public servants,” he said.
Baptiste said the vast majority of public servants work for $5,000 to $7,000 monthly. Only a few of them earn more. The higher grades in the public service are directors in range 68 who earn roughly $19,000 monthly but only a few persons fall into this grade.