The leadership of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) continues to find faults with the Fiscal Responsibility Bill which the Skerrit-administration withdrew from parliament last week Monday. The DPSU executives said the union mustered strong opposition to the bill and thereby forced the government to withdraw it from parliament until further notice.
DPSU President Steve Joseph pointed out Sections 8 and 9 of the bill as not representative of the best interest of public workers in the country. He said the section’s 2% provision places a limitation on the salaries and benefits of civil servants and that this will not be accepted by the union.
DPSU General Secretary, Thomas Letang, also said the offensive sections seek to limit or nullify the legality of trade unions which have mutual agreements with the government. He said DPSU essential operates to protect the work and payment interests of public workers, but the sections of the bill seek to curtail the powers of the union in this regard.
However, Financial Secretary Denise Edwards, has sought to correct the impressions that DPSU leadership has about the fiscal bill. She noted that the section speaks to the entire recurrent expenditure of the government and not necessarily to salaries of public workers as the opposition is trying to prove. She said the sections that DPSU and members of the opposition find offensive address the entire recurrent expenditure as a total package and does not isolate 2% remuneration limit for public workers.
Meanwhile, PM Roosevelt Skerrit has announced that CARICAD is helping the government with the reclassification exercise embarked upon to reconstitute the organizational structure of the public service. The exercise will also evaluate salaries and compensation structure for civil servants with a view to upgrading them instead of only attending to demands for salary increases. Skerrit said the reclassification will occasion salary increase and promotions for public servants once it is completed and implemented.
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