Pay hikes for Govt daily-paid workers

THE LOWEST-paid government daily-paid worker will soon be getting more than the lowest-paid worker in the monthly-paid category. This claim was made yesterday by the President-General of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), Robert Giuseppi.

He said at a signing ceremony witnessed by Minister of Public Administration, Lenny Saith that he was not boasting, but was proud about what he had achieved for the daily-paid workers who are members of his union. Giuseppi put it this way: “Our lowest worker, would be far better-paid than the PSA lowest monthly-paid worker. We have the figures here.” When he made the point, Giuseppi said it was not to make Minister Saith worried to the point where people may be knocking at his door. According to Giuseppi, “When people think that ours is a second-class type of worker with a second-class union, they must know that it was because of our creativity that we are able to show that the frontiers we go to, cannot be challenged.” He said he was happy that the Chief Personnel Officer, Sandra Marchack did agree with his union.

Giuseppi expressed his sentiments at the signing of an agreement where workers in the daily-paid sector of government have now been re-classified — meaning that they are now in their proper wage bracket, according to the work they do. The signing exercise was the result of long and arduous work. It was noted by those present at the signing at the Kapok Hotel in Port-of-Spain that everything was achieved without the intervention of a third party — “a significant achievement,” as one party put it. The CPO, Sandra Marchack said she was very pleased to be a party to a Memorandum of Agreement being signed with a union which represented over 20,000 daily-rated employees in the Central Government, the Tobago House of Assembly and the Regional Corporations. She said the Memorandum of Agreement signed was one with a difference.

The difference was that it provided for increased wages for employees of a reclassification and regrading exercise undertaken over the last two and a half years by a team comprising representatives of the union and the CPO’s department. Marchack explained that the actual wage rate of each new grade, was subsequently developed, using as a guide rates applicable to comparable positions in a number of organisations in both the public and private sectors.