ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – The Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) says it will accept the five per cent wage increase offered by the Roosevelt Skerrit administration.
The union had been seeking a 10 per cent wage increase over the three year period.
“After careful analysis of the situation, we felt that we would accept what was being offered and that is 3, 1 and 1per cent,” said DPSU general secretary Thomas Letang following a meeting of the general membership on Thursday.
During the campaign for the December 8 general elections, Prime Minister Skerrit said the five per cent offer over the next three years was a result of pledges by “two friendly government” to provide budgetary support for Dominica.
Skerrit said that he had already informed government negotiators to increase the offer to the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) and the Dominica Teachers Association (DTA) from zero per cent over the next three years to five per cent.
The DTA has rejected the latest government offer.
Letang said there were various reasons for accepting the latest offer, including the government’s job classification exercise.
“We are looking at the job classification exercise and one of the things we have realized is out about 350 positions in the public service that were analyzed, more than 200 positions were either downgraded or remained at the same level.
“So what it means is that people coming into those positions, it is very likely that they will get a reduced salary than what currently exists. Those who are in those positions will not be affected, however if you take a two per cent salary increase, what it means for those who have not been upgraded, it means that their salary will not be what it is or what it should be as compared to a five per cent.”
Letang said that public servants who do not benefit from the classification exercise will at least “have gotten a five per cent increase on their salary”.
He said further it was important for the union and the government to settle the wage negotiations given the fact that the two bodies will be in negotiations for a new wage agreement within six months.
“So what it means is that we will have another opportunity, very, very soon, to look at most of the non-salary matters which have been withdrawn,” he stated. “So we will have an opportunity, we will have a chance, to bring that back in the next few months, which is not very, very far away,” he said, adding that the union had also looked at the five per cent increase and its “long term effect for public officers.
“As you are fully aware of, any salary increase would affect your pension and the quantum of gratuity that you would receive. So when we looked at this, in comparison to a two per cent and the immediate implementation of the classification exercise, we thought it was in the best interest of public officers to accept the 3, 1 and 1 and to seek from government a definite time frame within which the classification will be implemented.
“We believe that this is in the best interest of public officers,” he said, saying that public servants who attended the meeting understood the situation and “we have decided to accept the 3, 1 and 1”.
DAT president, Celia Nicholas, said that the membership met last weekend and has already written to government indicating its position.
Pic – Thomas Letang
