Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he favours quick job promotions and attendant salary increase instead of mere pay raise. He said it is better for public workers to undergo job reclassification whereby they can enjoy quick promotions and the higher salary that comes with such elevation, instead of just demanding for a certain percentage of salary increase on an old job level.
“My proposal is that let us go through a process of reclassification,” Roosevelt Skerrit explained. “We believe that through reclassification exercise you can elevate yourself on the position where you are to a higher position and in the process, you will get a higher salary.”
The prime minister said he agrees that Dominicans everywhere should earn higher salaries; but what would a 2% increase do to a salary of EC$2,000? He opined that he sees no way salary increase would turn the fortunes of public workers around with the way they are going about it.
“I am the first person in Dominica who will admit that salaries should be higher in Dominica,” he said. “I accept that; I agree with that. But what would a two per cent increase in your salary of two thousand dollars mean to you?”
According to the prime minister, the DLP administration has been implementing policies that would see more public workers obtaining higher academic degrees instead of mere certificates so as to ensure they are better suited for their jobs. Skerrit said the government ought to retrench people following the twin devastations of hurricanes Maria and Erika, but they did not do that because the government understood that people affected by the hurricanes still needed to feed their families.
He noted that even temporary government workers were not sacked during the storms despite the fact that the government was strapped for cash. He said this was largely because the government believes in job security and wants to keep people employed no matter what the country faces with natural and economic disasters. He recalled that salaries were paid on time, up till now, and people should work to get promotions rather than fighting to remain on the same spot with slight remuneration changes.
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