PSA rejects favouritism claim as unions demand wage deals

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that her union is re­ceiv­ing pref­er­en­tial treat­ment from the Gov­ern­ment, even as the PSA moves clos­er to se­cur­ing a ten per cent salary in­crease for its mem­bers while oth­er unions con­tin­ue to press for com­pa­ra­ble set­tle­ments.

Thomas was speak­ing yes­ter­day at the PSA’s cook­out and fam­i­ly day at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) St Joseph head­quar­ters.

“I’m not sure what is the pref­er­en­tial treat­ment. What I can say is that in re­la­tion to the PSA and our mem­ber­ship, we would have re­ject­ed four per cent. And there­fore, we are now in a sit­u­a­tion where our mem­bers are still on 2013 salaries, with the ex­cep­tion of those in the civ­il ser­vice statu­to­ry au­thor­i­ties and the THA (To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly). And, there­fore, I would ex­pect that those per­sons who are still on 2013 salaries to be treat­ed as pri­or­i­ty. So, I wouldn’t say pref­er­en­tial treat­ment but, of course, pri­ori­tis­ing those who are be­hind rather than those who are in front,” Thomas said.