PM Can Freeze Increments Without Changing S.I.

Dean Barrow

The threat of an amendment to the existing Public Service Regulations looms over the Public Service Union as a last-ditch effort by the Minister of Finance to get public officers to surrender their increments.  While the P.S.U. contends that the prime minister does not have the legal authority to make a one-sided decision regarding that matter, he said earlier today that there are at least two options to addressing the situation, including an imposition which does not require a change in the statutory instrument.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“If the P.S.U. maintains its intransigence, I’ve said that there is the intention to amend the Public Service Regulations dealing with salaries to give myself, on behalf of the government, the power then to impose the forgoing of the retrenchment.  There’s another way I could do it, I could simply impose without even seeking to change the SI on the basis that even though there would be an argument on the part of the Public Service Union that I am doing this unilaterally and without first seeking the sanction of law, that is an argument that could prevail legally, except then, it runs afoul of the fact that no court can force a government to pay money it does not have.”