No need for job panic, senator assures public sector

BY JULIAN RICHARDSON Assistant business co-ordinator richardsonj@jamaicaobserver.com

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

STATE Minister in the Ministry of Finance Senator Arthur Williams yesterday attempted to quell fears that there will be massive job cuts in the public sector come April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

According to Williams, rumours of job cuts originated from "loose talk" after the Ministry of Finance sent out two circulars -- one asking for the number of temporary employees in central government and the other asking for the number of employees that would be entitled to redundancy.

"Those two circulars have been the cause for much concern," he said, adding that, "Rumours are out there that ministries, departments and agencies are collecting names of people who are to leave on April 1 and a whole state of panic has been generated."

Williams made the comments at yesterday's Monday Exchange meeting of Observer reporters and editors at the newspaper's head office in Kingston. He said union leaders had brought his attention to the fears, which he declared had no basis.

"I want to assure the country that there is no need for any panic," said Williams.

In order for it to get the US$1.27 billion standby facility from the International Monetary Fund, Government subjected itself to an intensive and extensive programme of monitoring and surveillance of its handling of the economy. One of the commitments made by the Bruce Golding administration is that it will gradually reduce the wage bill from the present 11.5 per cent of GDP to 9.5 per cent in the medium term, prompting some persons to speculate that there may be job cuts.

The public sector wage bill is one of the burdensome expenses for which Government has to budget yearly. In fact, the wage bill has been increased by an estimated 50 per cent over the last two years and now stands at $126 billion, forcing Government to freeze public sector salaries as part of its mandate to create the conditions necessary to support economic growth.

Against this background, the Public Sector Transformational Unit was implemented to transform the public sector into one that is "performance-based, efficient and cost-effective". And according to Williams, it is they who will decide if job cuts are indeed necessary.

"Any cuts that are going to come, it's going to either come as a result of the Public Sector Transformational Unit completing its work and determining that this is the way to go for the future or if there is no resolve on the part of all the stakeholders to find a way out," he said.

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COMMENTS (4)

Wa Tch
3/16/2010

This govt. has lost credibility.

Leopold McPherson
3/16/2010

Folks do not listen to anybody from this govt. The prime minister and his cronies are a bunch of liars. They will swear on the cross that certain things wont happen only to find later the same things happen. The truth of the matter is that these politicians work on the assumptions that members of the public are stupid and they are not capable of knowing when they are taking us for granted and lying to us. Only the dead man in the grave doesnt know that there will be massive job cut in the civil service.
They have agreed to this measure to the IMF, so it doesnt matter how they want to sugar coat it, its going to happen.
My Advice to the civil servants, if you have a plan B, its time to put it in motion......forget the stupid pension you are waiting on.
lets see how successful this IMF programme will be. Remember in the 1970's under the IMF, whats was the result of that?.......a decimated economy with very frustrated and angry people.

mike willy
3/16/2010

Here we go again, Do anybody remember the Prime Minister before the start of the recession said Jamaica and Jamaican had no need to worry and panic. Months later he changed his tongue.
This is what happening again, the fact of the matter is that 22, 000 is going to let go and Mr Williams is saying no need to panic. Clearly these guys are clueless and are in dreamland.

Richard Edwards
3/16/2010

Bottom line Mr Williams, many civil servants are in fact going to lose their jobs, as many as 20-25 thousand, thats the number that have been circulating, what you guys do, you give the people a false sense that you have things under control, when in truth and fact you are cluless about what you are doing and what needs to be done, historically, thats how you guys operate.
Richard Edwards. New York City
betterlifeforjamaicans@yahoo.com

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