JACKSON
MINISTER OF State in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, said there may have to be job cuts in the public sector after the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) expires in March.
Under the MoU the Government agreed not to cut about 15,000 jobs in the public service, which had come under threat during the two-year life of the agreement. The Joint Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) in turn agreed, on behalf of workers, to accept two years of "wage restraint".
The Government was expected to save some $5 billion during the life of the MoU and Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, had said he was looking forward to sign a future MoU. However, Government was forced to pay out $1.8 billion in 'hardship payments' to civil servants, recently, as it has been unable to keep inflation to single digits, one of the guarantees on which the unions had signed the MoU.
And most of the unions have said they will not enter another wage freeze agreement.
Mr. Jackson said yesterday that the Government does not plan to ask for another wage freeze. However, he added that, without a wage freeze there may have to be redundancies.
He said negotiations should start within two months for another MoU without the wage freeze component.
