PM Comments on Proposed Changes to Legal Officer Pay Scale

John Briceño

The Attorney General’s Ministry has reportedly made a New Pay Scale Proposal to the Ministry of Finance. Reports are that, this seeks to increase the salaries of legal officers within the Ministry. Given the current economic climate and ten percent cut to public officer salaries, last week, Dean Flowers, the President of the Public Service Union referred to this as an “unconscionable submission.” But when News Five spoke with the Prime Minister, John Briceño, today, he explained the rationale behind the Attorney General Ministry’s submission, noting, however, that the timing of the proposal may not be right.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I unofficially met the President, Dean Flowers, he had a meeting in my office and I was getting their when he was leaving and I we had a very cordial discussion. And, I told him Dean all of us are in the same boat and we don’t have to fight one another. Not everything has to be a fight. The letter he sent was a nasty letter. It did not need to be like that.  You could have sent decent letter saying we oppose for whatever reason it may be. The point is that the Attorney General is making the point that under the Legal Service Commission they are separate from the public service. They are not a part of the public services, just like the judges and the magistrates; they are not a part of it. That is why they have different pay scale. I wish Dean would have taken the time to study that. But, over the years, they have kept them in the same pay scale as government, when they really constitutionally do not belong under that pay scale. I could understand the Attorney General trying to look after her employees. The challenge we are facing is a lot of these attorneys we have working are saying, you know what I could go to the private sector? They are paying like forty thousand dollars a year, and for an attorney that is no kind of money. She is concerned that they will leave and she is going to stay with no one, and then when you are trying to get people to come to work they are not going to come for forty thousand dollars a year. So, she is attempting to correct that. The timing may not be right. Maybe it is something we can look at in the near future. But, I wish Dean Flowers would not have to be reacting like everything is a fight.”