3% option

Twenty-two years after flatly rejecting an “option” from the then Erskine Sandiford administration to cut public workers’ salaries, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) is about to ask its members to take a pay cut.
Very reliable sources told the DAILY NATION yesterday this was one of five options which the top brass of the union has put on the bargaining table to Government to stave off the cutting of more than 3 000 public servants’ jobs as Government tries to plug a multi-million-dollar deficit.
Yesterday the NUPW issued a public notice inviting “all temporary workers in the public service and statutory boards” to attend a meeting at its Dalkeith, St Michael headquarters today at 4 p.m.
That notice said: “The union will discuss its counter proposals which were sent to the Ministry of the Civil Service and the course of action which the NUPW intends to take.”
According to the union, it has been bombarded with calls from temporary officers since last Friday’s announcement by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler that 3 000 public officers would be sent home.