SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Four trade unions have con­demned the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion’s (SRC) pro­posed salary in­crease for Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials. Vex­a­tious, a slap in the face, in­sult­ing, an egre­gious in­jus­tice, gross dis­re­spect and be­tray­al was how the trade unions de­scribed the rec­om­mend­ed in­creas­es for sev­er­al of the coun­try’s top pub­lic of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Cab­i­net min­is­ters. The Gov­ern­ment may ac­cept or re­ject the rec­om­men­da­tion.

The SRC’s rec­om­men­da­tions for these new re­mu­ner­a­tion pack­ages come ten years af­ter MPs and min­is­ters got a pay hike. The last pay hike was in March 2014 from the No­vem­ber 2013 rec­om­men­da­tion of the SRC’s 98th re­port.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s salary will see a huge hike once the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion (SRC) 117th re­port that was tabled in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day ob­tain the ap­proval of the Cab­i­net.

Dr Row­ley’s salary will in­crease from $59,680 to $80,000 a month.

The SRC, how­ev­er, re­moved the du­ty al­lowance for­mer­ly re­ceived by Row­ley of $8,680, so the ef­fec­tive in­crease is in the vicin­i­ty of $11,640.

Row­ley’s en­tire re­mu­ner­a­tion pack­age is sub­ject to tax.

The re­port rec­om­mend­ed that Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s pay move from $64,270 to $73,920 tax-free.

The in­crease would al­so ben­e­fit Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar whose salary would shift from $29,590 to $47,500.

The pay pack­ets of Cab­i­net min­is­ters would jump from $41,030 to $47,500.

 Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie’s salary seems to be the on­ly pub­lic of­fi­cial’s month­ly salary which re­mains con­stant at $50,350.

Yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre Michael An­nisette ques­tioned the ba­sis for the in­crease, giv­en that Gov­ern­ment has been call­ing on the pop­u­la­tion to do more with less.

An­nisette said while par­lia­men­tar­i­ans were in line for big­ger and bet­ter pay pack­ages, “the same prin­ci­ples, con­cepts and ide­ol­o­gy must be hand­ed down to the or­di­nary cit­i­zen, mid­dle-class work­ers and low-in­come earn­ers”.

He said while the SRC pro­posed a fat­ter pay cheque for Dr Row­ley, “pub­lic ser­vants are be­ing forced in­to wage slav­ery, some even work­ing two jobs to make ends meet. You can­not have that kind of dis­par­i­ty and di­vi­sion with­in a so­ci­ety.”

he said: “I would al­so add that the same mea­sure must be across the board. It must not be for a se­lect­ed few be­cause when we do that we are build­ing a so­ci­ety that is di­vid­ed.”

An­nisette said this does not au­gur well as we are see­ing a grow­ing trend of “in­come and wealth in­equal­i­ties.”

“Their wages are not a re­flec­tion of the true eco­nom­ic and fi­nan­cial chal­lenges that they have to go through. We can­not build that false premise that those who are at the top are en­ti­tled to salaries which I am not ar­gu­ing about, but what I am say­ing is that the or­di­nary work­er too de­serves to have a prop­er in­come to sur­vive.”

He said it was” in­sult­ing and disin­gen­u­ous” for those at the top to get these huge wage hikes and “then tell pub­lic ser­vants to take crumbs.”

“When you pay peo­ple peanuts you will get mon­keys to per­form the job.”

An­nisette was re­fer­ring to the four per cent back pay paid to pub­lic sec­tor work­ers last Christ­mas.

“We have al­ways ar­tic­u­lat­ed that the four per cent was a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt by the Gov­ern­ment to de­press wages. It was shoved down the pub­lic ser­vants’ throats,” he said, while the SRC had no prob­lem putting for­ward these hefty pro­pos­als that would be fund­ed by the tax­pay­ers.

An­nisette said on one hand Gov­ern­ment was telling the coun­try to tight­en its belt but the SRC had no prob­lems rais­ing their salaries.

Weigh­ing in on the is­sue, Keone Guy, pres­i­dent of the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T said the as­so­ci­a­tion “ve­he­ment­ly op­pos­es the pro­posed salary ad­just­ments.”

He stat­ed that while se­nior gov­ern­ment mem­bers are poised to re­ceive a hefty 20 to 30 per cent in­crease as re­port­ed, “of­fer­ing a mere four per cent over six years to pub­lic ser­vants, in­clud­ing fire­fight­ers, is an egre­gious in­jus­tice.”

Not­ing that their mem­bers put their lives on the line dai­ly, Guy said they are be­ing un­der­val­ued and ne­glect­ed.

“This dis­crep­an­cy is not on­ly a slap in the face to fire­fight­ers but al­so a be­tray­al of the es­sen­tial ser­vices they pro­vide to so­ci­ety.”

Guy said the rec­om­men­da­tion to ab­sorb or in­cor­po­rate the du­ty al­lowance in­to the salaries of the PM and oth­ers “is a covert at­tempt to en­sure a fur­ther in­crease in an al­ready hefty re­tire­ment pack­age.”

He said he ex­pects lead­ers in our so­ci­ety to strive to­ward eq­ui­ty.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion Ger­ard Gor­don said what the as­so­ci­a­tion has been wit­ness­ing does not come as a “sur­prise”.

He said what the as­so­ci­a­tion con­tin­ues to see is ir­re­spon­si­ble lead­er­ship and man­age­ment by the coun­try’s ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“And I place no wa­ter in my mouth to say that notwith­stand­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion of the SRC, I am wait­ing to see these par­lia­men­tar­i­ans agree to this fool­ish­ness.”

He said it can­not be that what is good for pub­lic ser­vants “is not good for those who we have been elect­ed in­to of­fice. They seem to on­ly be con­cerned with serv­ing them­selves.”

Un­der the gloom and doom Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to paint, Gor­don said, the rec­om­men­da­tion was “a gross dis­re­spect and an­oth­er in­stance where we see by their ac­tions that they do not care about the pop­u­la­tion of T&T.”

He said the work­ing class and cit­i­zens are “be­ing in­sult­ed by this ridicu­lous rec­om­men­da­tion.”

Gor­don said Cab­i­net min­is­ters and par­lia­men­tar­i­ans re­ceive their en­tire salary and al­lowances as their pen­sion.

He cit­ed the Op­po­si­tion Leader as one of the high­est paid par­lia­men­tar­i­ans.

“Be­cause she’s re­ceiv­ing her pen­sion when she was prime min­is­ter and al­so the salary of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion.”

Gor­don said he was not against peo­ple ob­tain­ing a pay hike.

“But what we are averse to is that on one hand the same State, the same Prime Min­is­ter, the same Fi­nance Min­is­ter, all of these peo­ple whose heed and cry was that they couldn’t af­ford to pay, they ig­nored the fact that we look­ing at in­fla­tion that has oblit­er­at­ed any sort of abil­i­ty for the work­ing class to ad­vance and save their fam­i­lies. These are the same peo­ple now who are seek­ing to jus­ti­fy.”

He said to add in­sult to in­jury the in­crease was not minis­cule. “A 30 per cent in­crease!”

Gor­don said the union has tak­en note of the rec­om­men­da­tions.

He said that for Dr Row­ley to ac­cept the pay hike would be to con­firm “what peo­ple were as­sum­ing all along, that they do not care about the work­ing class in T&T.”

He said mem­bers in the as­so­ci­a­tion’s What­sApp groups have been vent­ing their dis­plea­sure.

“Peo­ple are not pleased at all. In fact, if they could find some way to en­sure that those in­creas­es nev­er come to those of­fi­cers, I be­lieve they would do that. That is the lev­el of dis­gust and dis­dain you are see­ing amongst all of the mem­ber­ship.”

Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) Ozzi War­wick said the union will hold a press con­fer­ence to­mor­row.

How­ev­er, War­wick said the SRC’s rec­om­men­da­tions are “vex­a­tious and provoca­tive” at this time.

Sev­er­al calls to pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion Leroy Bap­tiste’s cell­phone yes­ter­day went unan­swered.

Cur­rent salaries vs pro­posed in­creas­es

Of­fice Cur­rent salary Pro­posed In­crease

Pres­i­dent $64,270 $73,920 $9,650

Prime Min­ister $59,680 $80,000 $20,320

Op­po­si­tion Leader $29,590 $47,500 $17,910

MPs $17,410 $20,660 $3,258

Chief Sec­re­tary $41,030 $47,500 $6,470

Cab­i­net Min­is­ter $41,030 $47,500 $6,470

Sen­ate Pres­i­dent $29,590 $39,300 $$9,710

House Speak­er $29,590 $42,500 $12,910