MEMBERS OF Parliament will start receiving higher salaries at the end of this month.
Effective April 1, 2002, their salaries were increased by eight per cent in keeping with similar increases for civil servants over the two-year period 2002 to 2004.
"The increases have not yet been reflected in the MPs' pay packet. They will be reflected at the end of this month," Colin Campbell, Information Minister, said yesterday. He, however, did not say when the arrears for the period April to July 2002 would be paid to the 57 Members of Parliament now sitting in the 60-seat House of Representatives. The MPs for three constituencies St. James North-West, Kingston Central and St. Ann North-East - have resigned and there have been no by-elections to replace them.
Currently, MPs are paid just over $1 million as basic salary, and allowances of just over $400,000 annually.
The increases to them have triggered renewed calls from Senators to be given an "adequate compensation" for the services they perform.
Recently, Dr. Oswald Harding, Q.C., Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, complained that the treatment of Senators was unjust. The 21 Senators are given a stipend, which some have claimed is inadequate for the functions they perform in the upper chamber of Parliament.
During a recent sitting of the House, MP Clifton Stone and MP Ronald Thwaites (who has since resigned), called for adjustments to pensions paid to retired parliamentarians, many of whom, they said, took home $6,000 per month.
