Government Negotiator Says Retroactive Increments is Not a Reality This Year

Francis Fonseca

Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, who is on the government’s team, explained in greater detail. He said that aside from the unions wanting their increments to be restored, they also want to collect their increments for the past two years. That, he explained, is not a matter that can be realized this year.

Francis Fonseca, Government negotiator with Unions

“The real difference in our positions has been this effective start date of the unfreezing of those increments. So initially we had proposed September first. After discussions in Cabinet, we brought that forward to July first. The union’s position has always been that it should be effective April first, 2023. Today they presented us with some additional information, which I think provided some context for a better understanding of how perhaps some public officers could be negatively impacted by a later start date, so there could be some discrimination if you like. So that additional information I think will help us to go back to Cabinet. We’ve undertaken to take that additional information back to Cabinet, and to make the case for perhaps moving it forward to April first, so we will do that on Tuesday in Cabinet, and a final decision will be made by the Cabinet on that issue. We also, of course, they’ve talked about, you know, the two lost increments that they have suffer. And we have said to them that obviously that’s not something we can do this fiscal year. We’re prepared to continue having an, a discussion with them about how that can be looked at in the future. So that’s going to be an ongoing discussion in terms of, of those two lost increments.”