“Volunteer” for a pay cut and save 3 000 of your “brothers and sisters” from joining the breadline.
Outspoken businessman Sir Charles Williams has that advice for the near 26 000 people now employed by Government, and he has also warned that the island faced “disaster” if Government mishandled its finances in 2014.
Saying he was saddened by the announcement that thousands of public sector workers would lose their jobs between next month and March, the construction mogul said every Barbadian employed by Government should voluntarily give up a portion of their pay packet instead.
And he also urged the Freundel Stuart Administration to forget the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others from outside and “paddle our own canoe”.
Last Friday, in a statement announcing the imminent retrenchment, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler said Government’s enforcement of a pay cut was not an option because of “the limitations imposed by the constitutional amendment prohibiting the altering of the salaries and allowances of public officers to their disadvantage”.
But speaking yesterday during an interview with the DAILY NATION at this Lears, St Michael office, Sir Charles said: “In my opinion, and I am going to be very forthright, as honest Barbadians all of them should take a voluntary cut so that their brother and sister don’t go home. Volunteer! Are we not brothers and sisters?
