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Monday, 10 November 2008
With economic pressures mounting on the government, the Bruce Golding administration says trimming the size of the public service is not off the list of options being considered to re-calibrate the public purse.
The Government, which says it will be taking a hard look at the public service establishment, is however quick to point out it is not moving to cut jobs at this time.
Meeting the wage demands which run into billions of dollars for thousands of workers employed in the Government sector has caused the governing Jamaica Labour Party to put the state of the public sector on its menu of options.
The Government has committed to paying more money for wages and benefits for the public sector labour force after entering into agreements with various groups including teachers and police officers.
Now Minister with responsibility for the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson, says the administration will have to examine how it will pay about 100,000 workers.
Enormous wage bill
This comes in light of the widening fiscal deficit, inflationary pressures, a sliding Jamaican dollar and an international financial system that has gone awry.
"This is something that we have to look at in the mid term and were embarking on scientific approaches now to determine needs," he said.
While moving quickly to prevent any panic of immediate job losses among government workers, Senator Nelson says his administration is very concerned.
"If you have a staff of 100,000, this clearly means that the wage bill to the government is going to be enormous and it is but we don't want to deprive anybody of employment purely for the sake of trimming a wage bill so we're going to be doing it in a very scientific way to determine needs first of all ... any Cabinet is going to be concerned if its wage cost continue to spiral and will take steps to stop this," he said.
According to Mr. Nelsons, the Government will embark on this cost saving exercise in a way that will stand up to scrutiny.
http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/13108/26/
With economic pressures mounting on the government, the Bruce Golding administration says trimming the size of the public service is not off the list of options being considered to re-calibrate the public purse.
The Government, which says it will be taking a hard look at the public service establishment, is however quick to point out it is not moving to cut jobs at this time.
Meeting the wage demands which run into billions of dollars for thousands of workers employed in the Government sector has caused the governing Jamaica Labour Party to put the state of the public sector on its menu of options.
The Government has committed to paying more money for wages and benefits for the public sector labour force after entering into agreements with various groups including teachers and police officers.
Now Minister with responsibility for the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson, says the administration will have to examine how it will pay about 100,000 workers.
Enormous wage bill
This comes in light of the widening fiscal deficit, inflationary pressures, a sliding Jamaican dollar and an international financial system that has gone awry.
"This is something that we have to look at in the mid term and were embarking on scientific approaches now to determine needs," he said.
While moving quickly to prevent any panic of immediate job losses among government workers, Senator Nelson says his administration is very concerned.
"If you have a staff of 100,000, this clearly means that the wage bill to the government is going to be enormous and it is but we don't want to deprive anybody of employment purely for the sake of trimming a wage bill so we're going to be doing it in a very scientific way to determine needs first of all ... any Cabinet is going to be concerned if its wage cost continue to spiral and will take steps to stop this," he said.
According to Mr. Nelsons, the Government will embark on this cost saving exercise in a way that will stand up to scrutiny.
http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/13108/26/