Tweet
-
-
Golding's pay cut - who's next?
Golding's pay cut - who's next?
PM Golding has taken salary cut
For some it was grand standing, for others a recognition that a dose of reality was sorely needed in Jamaica.
And the latter sentiment seems to have prevailed.
Ahead of Tuesday's budget presentation, the Prime Minister, Bruce Golding told Jamaicans in an official address that he was not only foregoing a salary increase that was due, but also taking a 15 percent pay cut.
And he called on fellow parliamentarians to walk down that same road, by agreeing to sacrifice 10 percent of their salaries.
At the same time Mr Golding, citing the impact of the global economic downturn, announced a wage freeze in the public sector.
This came as his administration and the country tries to grapple with the huge challenges the financial crisis has imposed on a Jamaica that's had to shed jobs in key sectors including the vital bauxite industry.
Choices
"We have had to ask public sector workers to forego the increases that would have been due this year," he told the nation.
The prime minister said the other option "would be to lay off thousands of workers at a time when alternative employment is so hard to find".
His decision to cut back on his wages earned Prime Minister Golding some praise from the trade union movement.
But union leaders have also been taking a sober look at what impact the austerity measures Mr Golding is pushing will have on their members, and the accolades have been tempered with queries about this.
Broadcaster/analyst Cliff Hughes has suggested that Prime Minister Golding has little choice, because the public finances are in a very poor state, and the government is facing a huge deficit.
He warned that belt tightening was going to be the order of the day.
"It's crunch time, we've got to bite the bullet," Hughes told BBC Caribbean.
He said Mr Golding's action could be seen as a signal to the private sector to engage in similar activity:
"In fact what the prime minister is trying to do is to set the national tone right across the country. This notion of pay increases would have to be suspended for the next year or two," Mr Hughes said.
Who's next?
But is the Golding formula likely to be emulated in other parts of the Caribbean?
PM Thompson is not pondering a pay cut
It could be, but perhaps not in Barbados.
When BBC Caribbean put the prospect to Prime Minister David Thompson he said: "Pay cuts in Barbados are not at this stage up for discussion. They are a very controversial issue and rightly so."
Prime Minister Thompson said issues about Barbados' fiscal condition would be handled in "other ways".
He conceded that tough decisions would have to be made, depending on how long the recession lasts.
Comment