Former PSA president: Union agreement needed for public servants’ arrears payout

At­tor­ney, in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions spe­cial­ist and for­mer Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Clyde Weath­er­head says the Gov­ern­ment can­not uni­lat­er­al­ly dis­burse the pro­posed 40 per cent cash com­po­nent of pub­lic ser­vants’ wage ar­rears with­out an agree­ment with the union.

The Gov­ern­ment al­lo­cat­ed fund­ing for the pay­out in its bud­get, de­spite PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas re­it­er­at­ing the union’s re­jec­tion of the pro­posed arrange­ment. Un­der the pro­pos­al, 60 per cent of the set­tle­ment would be paid through non-cash ben­e­fits and 40 per cent in cash.

The set­tle­ment is es­ti­mat­ed at $3.8 bil­lion and cov­ers the 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 ne­go­ti­at­ing pe­ri­ods.