Hike doubt

It’s unlikely Barbados’ 28 000 public servants will get an increase of wages and salaries this year.
Not only is there no provision for this hike in this year’s Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure which were laid in Parliament on Tuesday, but the principal bargaining agent for these workers says it has made proposals to Government which may not make a pay hike absolutely essential, given the administration’s precarious finances.
National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) general secretary Denis Clarke disclosed yesterday that the union had responded to the Government’s zero-zero offer to their initial proposals for a salary increase, with a counter-proposal aimed at getting a better deal for civil servants, even though it might not involve an immediate salary increase.
“The counter that we would have put in to facilitate getting the percentage that we are asking . . . would take the place of the salary increase,” said Clarke.