- Shaw
The
Opposition Jamaica Labour Party is distancing itself from a recent decision
of the Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee, which recommended that parliamentarians
be com-pensated on the basis of the second Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU2)
signed between the Government and some public sector workers.
Parliamentarians adopted a resolution last Wednesday brought to the House of Representatives by Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, to grant increases to the Members of Parliament and Cabinet ministers in line with the salary hike set out in MoU2. This means that parliamentarians will see a 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent increase in their salaries over a two-year period.
"What the Minister of Finance failed to tell Parliament and the country was that the three Opposition members that were on that committee, namely, myself, Ruddy Spencer and Andrew Holness, did not attend any of the three meetings that made the decision about that recommendation," said Audley Shaw, Opposition Spokesman on Finance.
Other
engagements
Questioned as to why the Opposition did not appear at the meetings, Mr. Shaw said he had other crucial engagements, but could not account for his other two colleagues.
Addressing journalists yester-day at a press conference hosted by the party at its Belmont Road, New Kingston, headquarters to assess its five-day islandwide pre-election tour, Mr. Shaw also reiterated that the Opposition would not accept salary increases until the Government settled its wage dispute with the police and nurses.
- E.C.
