For­mer Fi­nance and now Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert is warn­ing pub­lic ser­vants that their union lead­ers are deny­ing them their back­pay and caus­ing them to suf­fer.

Speak­ing at the Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary School last evening, Im­bert said the gov­ern­ment is ready to pay back­pay to mem­bers of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA), but the union’s ex­ec­u­tive has re­fused to ac­cept the wage of­fer.

“Not on­ly have we of­fered the pub­lic sec­tor unions four per cent for a par­tic­u­lar pe­ri­od, just a cou­ple of months ago we of­fered them five per cent. That’s nine per cent in to­tal,” Im­bert told the hun­dreds of PNM sup­port­ers in at­ten­dance.