Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator
BY NEXT week the country will know the level of salary increases to be granted to Cabinet ministers, junior ministers, Members of Parliament, mayors and councillors.
Fitz Jackson, State Minister for Finance and Planning, said yesterday that Cabinet is to review a submission from the Finance Ministry on salaries and other emoluments to these groups in less than a week.
He told The Gleaner yesterday that Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies would make an announce-ment on the issue.
In 2002, parliamentarians received a 103 per cent salary hike. The increase was linked to a general increase for civil servants, aimed at bringing their wages to 80 per cent of those paid in the private sector for comparable work.
The increase, however, triggered public outcry and prompted then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to appoint a parliamentary salaries committee, chaired by Oliver Clarke, to review the formula for awarding increases in compensation to parliamentarians.
The committee proposed, among other things, that the practice of linking the salaries of parliamentarians to that of Permanent Secretaries should be discontinued.
It pointed out that parliamentarians operate in the public service and, as such, their remuneration should be set within the framework of public service compensation.
Under the new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU2), which was signed on May 30 by the Government and unions representing public sector workers, the partners agreed that the principle underlying the wage revision would apply to Government ministers and elected officials.
As part of MoU2, a cap of 20 per cent has been placed on the public sector wage fund over the next two fiscal years. However, state companies that can afford it are allowed to pay their workers more.
While a broad cap is in place on the wage fund, officials suggested that actual increases would range between 13 per cent and 27 per cent over the period, with junior, lower-paid public servants getting the bigger hikes.
