Cuts delayed

Civil?servants, jittery over Government’s announced job cuts previously scheduled to begin tomorrow, now have two more weeks before they will know their fate.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart announced yesterday evening that the January 15 date for the start of Government’s lay-off of thousands of public workers had been vacated for administrative reasons and the job cuts would now proceed at the end of the month.
“Because of the constraints under which we have had to operate in even generating the list, the list has proven a bigger challenge than would have been the case in 1991 with no casual workers around, with a Public Service Act in place, with the constitutional amendment in place and all the other constraints that did not exist in 1991,” he noted.
“The Ministry of the Civil Service has taken a little more time; it has had to be a lot more careful, so what I?have said is that we target now the end of this month. That deadline though is not negotiable,” the Prime Minister told members of the media at Government Headquarters, after he emerged from another round of discussions with the trade unions.
He added that the list would be handed to Cabinet by Thursday.