"Now we do owe them $8 billion in arrears," said Shaw. "But then be reasonable. The $8 billion in arrears, we have said that we can't afford to pay you all of it at one time," he said while addressing the 13th annual senior level policy seminar of the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston last Friday.

Shaw said the Government has put on the table that it will pay the arrears in tranches: $2 billion in May next year, another $2 billion in July and in the second fiscal year, $2.5 billion in the first quarter. The final $1.5 billion, he said, would be paid in April 2012.

However, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), which represents the island's 22,000 teachers, has indicated that it was dissatisfied with the timeline.

"I use this podium today to say to Mr Stewart and his colleagues at the JTA, be reasonable, be reasonable!"

Last Thursday, the JTA, in a release, said all planned actions have been put on hold pending negotiations. The finance ministry had forwarded the matter to the Ministry of Labour after numerous failures to reach an agreement.

Earlier threats of protest have seemingly been put to rest after both parties came to an amicable understanding about the way forward.

According to Shaw, teachers under his administration have enjoyed a substantial increase.

"The teachers are now enjoying an increase of 55 per cent average. The principals who were threatening to close down schools on Monday morning, have got an average increase of 65 per cent under this Government," he pointed out.

Reclassification

But the teachers were not the only public-sector workers who were asked to be "reasonable". The minister also pointed fingers at the police and the nurses.

"I wonder if all of Nurse Anderson's (Edith Allwood-Anderson, president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica) membership of nurses across Jamaica is aware that I have 15 per increase set aside in this Budget that they should have got from April of this year but Nurse Anderson said she doesn't want it," he informed.

Shaw and the nurses are in negotiations surrounding the reclassification exercise of the nurses.

Turning to the police, Shaw said the police received a 40 per cent increase during last year.

Shaw insisted that the public-sector wage bill must be contained.

"Two years ago, the wage bill was about $86 billion. It is now $135 billion, so that is an increase of over 40 per cent, close to 50 per cent. It must be contained now, it can't go any further," he said.