Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Hon. Freundel Stuart (right), greeting supporters after his address.
THE Freundel Stuart-led Government has not closed the door on the idea of salary increases or a coping allowance for public officers.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Stuart said his Government is committed to addressing those issues once the revenue signs are “sufficiently positive and sufficiently clear”. In the meantime, he said there is need for patience, prudence and restraint; these he suggested should be the “preferred courses of action”.
His comments came as he delivered the feature address on the third and final day of the Democratic Labour Party’s 62nd Annual Conference held at the Party’s headquarters in George Street, St. Michael, as he explained that the current economic environment has prevented Government from dealing with the issue of wages and salaries in as timely a manner as they would have wished, or would have been able to do had the economic environment been normal. He spoke to this as he noted that his Government assumed the reins of power just after the global financial meltdown of 2007, and has had to work to ensure that the standards of living and quality of life of Barbadians would be protected against the worst effects of that crisis.
“As I speak to you today, our economic and social challenges are not behind us. We still face the old problem of sluggish growth, a too large fiscal deficit with its companions of rising debt ratios, and declining international reserves. When you add to these the stubborn problem of wanton gun violence affecting certain sections of our society, you will see that we have our hands full. But your Government is feeling neither daunted not overwhelmed,” he asserted.
He made the point as he contended that the problem facing the country right now is revenue related, and he said Government has decided that, as far as possible, it will tackle it with a revenue solution. PM Stuart’s comments came as he made it clear that his Government is not in favour of job losses as a solution to present problems, maintaining that “half a loaf has always been better than no bread”.
“We believe that a worker is likely to be better off if he or she is earning a wage or salary, even if that wage or salary is not stretching as far as he or she would like; than if he or she is earning no wage or salary at all. In any event, there has never been, in my lifetime, any guarantee in Barbados that workers retrenched in the public sector will invariably or inevitably be absorbed in the private sector. What has happened rather, is that the laying-off of workers in the public sector has been taken as a signal to employers in the private sector that they can or should do the same,” he stated.
It is for that reason, the Prime Minister said, that his Government introduced the National Social Responsibility Levy. He maintained that that levy, which was first charged at a rate of two per cent and moved to 10 per cent in the last Budget, was not introduced out of malice or because Government wanted to impose undue hardships on workers or businesses. Rather, he told those gathered that given the difficult period the country has been going through, sacrifices have had to be made by all. (JRT)