We all pay

In the first place an explanation is needed for the apparent discrepancy which has seen RHA workers in Trinidad paid first while their counterparts in Tobago are still waiting on a first disbursal. According to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader Watson Duke, the first 50 percent of backpay owed was paid out last July for Trinidad RHA workers while their Tobago counterparts were supposed to have received theirs in September 2016, but they are still waiting.

“We are extremely concerned about the disparity that exists between workers in Tobago compared to their counterparts in Trinidad,” Duke said. “Those workers in Tobago are comparable with their counterparts in Trinidad in every single way - education, ability, and even experience. They are on par.

Why is it that they are treated less than their counterparts? Why is it that they are always second in line to receive their pay?” Could the answer to these questions involve the arrangements in place to transfer funds between the central Government and the THA? Assuming this to be the case, it is not a good explanation at all as it would point to even more problematic issues, such as the poor health of the devolution mechanism that bridges both islands.

Another discrepancy was pointed out. RHA workers have been paid, but after public servants.

What accounts for the timing? Is it simply a matter of low cash flows forcing staggered disbursal? Why must workers tolerate this kind of wayward inefficiency which results in an unfair situation where some workers are treated more equally than others.

The biggest problem is the fact that these workers should not have had to wait years to receive their backpay in the first place. Negotiations on pay increases should have been speedily done and implemented.

There should not have been an accumulation through successive administrations (which has occurred making this a deeply apolitical problem). At the end of the day, the State has been deferring the expenditure as a means of minimising the eventual impact on the deficit represented by increased wages. By paying backpay in bullets over years, the books are effectively insulated.

But this achieves more than a rose tint on the annual financial provisions. It also erodes the spending power of workers over time. The workers are asked to give up a considerable amount: their wages, their backpay and a portion of their spending power. What does the State give these workers in return for these favours? Workers under the current administration have been slow to picket and protest. Leader of the newly- formed United Protectors of the PSA, Oral Saunders, who is seeking to unseat Duke as president in the November election, welcomed the Government’s payout.

“We recognise that the economic situation facing the country has changed rapidly from the past couple of years to the present time and we are extremely happy for the payment,” he said.

One hopes that the State would make the extra to do better in the long-run. Because there is another problem. When State workers are treated poorly, the pool of talent available for the public service – and therefore the national at large that depends on it – is reduced.

Workers pay, but so do all of us in the long-run.