The Government of Grenada is reinforcing the rationale for its proposed deferral of the 4% wage/salary increase due to public officers for 2021.
The increase will add $13.2 million to the public sector wage bill, at a time when the Government is facing a significant drop in revenue, due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to recent public pronouncements by one of the trade unions attempting to justify the demand, Government outlines the 5 main reasons why the deferral is necessary.
It is important to note that the Government did not initiate the buyback of Grenlec. This was mandated by a court ruling following legal proceedings initiated by WRB, based on the provisions of the 1994 Share Purchase Agreement which allowed the company to claim force majeure due to changes to the operational environment of the energy sector.
Further, the money used for the Grenlec repurchase was taken from allocations for capital projects. This money was provided largely through grants and soft loan funding and any attempt to use this for recurrent expenditure will make the country ineligible for future support of this nature.
The fact that Government has been forced into this unplanned expenditure, at a time when revenue earnings are lower than expected, further undermines its inability to manage a larger wage bill at this time.
The public should also know that moves were already being made to garnish Government’s assets, both at home and abroad, which had the potential to affect Government’s ability to pay salaries or conduct any business whatsoever.
Additionally, given the level of pain and suffering being experienced by those who are unemployed as a result of the pandemic, Government has the additional responsibility of providing some measure of economic support for them.
The Government of Grenada recognises its obligation to honour the collective labour agreement that provides for the wage/salary increase but the economic fallout from Covid-19 is putting a strain on the country’s coffers at this time and therefore provides justification for the deferral.
GIS
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This is all NONSENSE. The people of this country are NONSENSE. People work too hard to pay their taxes so that the Government can pay their 4% increase to teachers with a childish mentality. The same ones who forced Government into selling Grenlec for $10 million.
They should give them a 4% decrease in salaries for their ungrateful ness and the way they have treated the Government and the people of this country. The Government is not corrupt. No one can be on top of the Government the same organization who responsible for building schools, hospitals, roads, bridges. so obviously these people will have more wealth than the people of this country.
Teachers can’t be taking all of the money for them selves. If Government payed teachers there would be a huge inflation and a crash to the economy. what they should is decrease their salaries by 4% for their ungrateful ness. This is a shame to our democracy. We are not given democracy to take advantage of the Government to tell them what we want.
All teachers and public servants want is just money. That’s it. They don’t care about the services they provide for our country. They don’t care about teaching children so that they can we are prepared for the future. All they want to do is just take the money and spend it on them selves to buy car. WHAT ABOUT HEALTH CARE???? WHAT ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE???? THEY DONT CARE ABOUT THE BAD ROADS WE HAVE????? WAHT ABOUT SUPPLY OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER???? WHAT ABOUT EDUCATION????
How can the Government seriously sit and come up with this garbage….and then allow this garbage to get published….something is utterly wrong with this administration…
Some of the Government’s “reasons” are either illogical or don’t make sense. That being said, I think that
1. The 4% increase should not be paid but given to teachers as shares in Grenlec. Government may be cash strapped but there are other ways for the teachers to be paid what is owed them.
2. The Government should announce what it’s COVID Relief package actually is and where that money is going to come from.
This is not an election year..so people please wait and see what will happen.
What government is talking about having to help people utter garbage. It’s their die hard supporters. Government has increased the wage bill themselves by hiring a whole set of party loyalists. It is the government continued efforts to take back grenlec the company was forced to pursue it’s action in the courts. This government doesn’t respect the working man.
Let us see ALL Government Ministers take a 4% DECREASE in their own wages to cover off the promises made to the teachers. This includes Mr. Mitchell.
It is a simple case of government not being honest when it comes to the country financial stand
We all know that Grenada was given a stimulus package plus other aid so it was easy to find the cash to purchase the rest of the shares in Grenlec.
The easy option now is to sell those shares to they citizens to raise funds to sort out the 4% pay rise.