…Min Jordan promises three-year salary increases for public servants
…Old Age Pension to go up

ALL public sector workers can expect salary increases especially in the next three years, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said on Sunday.

He also announced that Old Age Pension which now stands at $19,500 per month will be further increased when the national budget is presented later this month. Jordan made the announcement in a letter to the editor in which he responded to an article by trade union leader Lincoln Lewis in the Kaieteur News on Sunday. Under the caption “Local Government Elections, though disappointing to some, were not unexpected”, Lewis’ article touched on a number of issues including increase in salaries for cabinet ministers, as well as Members of Parliament and the payment of year-end bonuses to members of the disciplined services.

Hike in Old Age Pension
In his article, Lewis claimed that government taking away the subsidies on water and electricity from pensioners “remains heartless.” However, Jordan clarified that on entering office in May 2015, the administration found that only 30 per cent and 62 per cent of 42,397 pensioners were benefiting from the electricity and water subsidies, respectively. This, he said, was because the pensioner had to have both electricity and water metres in his/her name–which was a problem for many, especially those in indigenous, hinterland and rural areas. “After 23 years of encountering discrimination of all kinds under the previous government, the coalition government decided to bring a swift end to this policy. The decision was that all pensioners must benefit from the subsidies. So, the subsidies were incorporated (not removed) into the pension, which was increased by 30 percent, from $13,125 to $17,000. Today, old age pension stands at $19,500 and will be increased again, in the upcoming budget,” Jordan asserted.

Further, in addressing the issue of the bonus to members of the disciplined forces, Jordan said for many years the previous administration had adopted the practice of paying less to public sector workers, so as to retain an amount to pay year-end bonuses to workers in the disciplined services, only. “Recall that the standard wage increase was five per cent per annum, resulting in the paltry minimum wage of $39,570, in 2015. But a higher percentage has been budgeted to pay increases to all workers across-the-board. The difference in the two percentages was used to finance the one-month bonus to the disciplined services. Even in cases where funds remained after paying the bonus, the previous administration refused to use them to pay the other public sector workers, preferring to return them to the treasury,” Jordan, who worked as the finance ministry’s budget director for several years when the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) was in power, said.

“I do not recall Mr. Lewis condemning this practice. In fact, I do not recall any labour leader vociferously and consistently voicing their objection to this naked attempt to divide the workers. Instead of being condemned in the strongest possible terms by Mr. Lewis, yet another discriminatory practice of the previous administration is being heralded by him,” the finance minister said.

He noted that the coalition government “has clearly enunciated that all workers must benefit, if there are excess resources that can be shared. Hence, in 2015 and 2016, all workers benefited from the payment of bonuses of $50,000 and $25,000, respectively.”
Financial challenges

Jordan acknowledged that since 2017, the government has had to grapple with financial challenges that have precluded the payment of bonuses. “However, we have paid salary increases beyond the “five per cent”, such that the minimum wage has rapidly increased by nearly 52 percent in two years, from $39,570, in 2015, to $60,000, in 2017. It took the PPP/C administration nine years to move the minimum wage by a similar percentage, or from $26,070, in 2006 to $39,570, in 2015. All workers can expect salary increases going forward, especially in 2018, 2019 and 2020.”

The finance minister said he found particularly nauseating, Mr. Lewis’ attempt to connect the lower voter turnout by the disciplined services to the ending of the one-month bonus. “I firmly believe that our hard-fought right to vote cannot be so easily and callously sacrificed for the proverbial “40 pieces of silver.” Workers need to know that robbing them of their rightful increase in wages, in order to pay them a bonus, robs them of a higher pension and gratuity, since those are calculated based on your gross salary, which does not include a bonus.”

Cabinet salary
Jordan also set the record straight on the issue of salary increases for cabinet members. Noting that there has been a lot of misinformation on this subject, Jordan made it clear that President David Arthur Granger has not benefited from any salary increase since coming to office. He said the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo benefited from a one-time, “very small five per cent increase in salary in 2015.”

Jordan explained that when the coalition government acceded to office, it found that the salary of the attorney general (AG) was not only tax-free, but it was also higher than the prime minister’s salary. To correct this anomaly, the prime minister’s salary was adjusted slightly above the AG’s salary. “Please note however, that unlike the AG, the PM pays income tax.”

Jordan further explained that salaries of Cabinet ministers, Speaker of the National Assembly and leader of the opposition were increased by 50 percent; those of junior ministers by a lesser percentage; and those of the other parliamentarians by an even lesser percentage. “I wish to reiterate that the increases granted in 2015 were one-off increases. No further increase in the salaries of parliamentarians is contemplated for this term of office of the coalition government,” the finance minister stated.