BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth – Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has said his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of parliament would decline an increase in salaries until the government concluded contentious wage negotiations now underway with the island’s nurses and policemen.

“My members of parliament will not be prepared to accept the increase that has been granted to us until the nurses and the policemen have been able to settle their disputes,” Golding told cheering, bell-ringing party supporters Friday night in this south coast town.

He argued that it was unfair to the nurses and policemen for MPs to accept salary hikes at a time when those public sector employees were yet to settle their wage claim.

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to accept the report of the special select committee which reviewed the recommendations looking at Parliamentary salary increases.

Among other things, the committee recommended that the parliamentarians salaries should be adjusted in line with the percentage increase granted under the last public sector Memorandum of Understanding, which took effect in April.

But Golding told the Labourites who crammed the small Black River Square that he would be meeting with the Opposition parliamentarians this week after which time he would advise the government of the party’s decision not to accept the salary hike.

Describing the island’s nurses and policemen as the “most hard working” set of public sector employees in the country, the opposition leader said the government needed to “appreciate and recognise” the sacrifices and effort they had been making for the country.

“The nurses and the police are perhaps the only two professions where you cannot leave your post until the next person come to take over from you,” said Golding. “If the next person don’t turn up, you just have to stay on the job. A policeman just can’t walk off the job until somebody come to take over from him.”

The nation’s registered nurses, who reported sick last Thursday – the second industrial action in a month – to press home their demands for a better wage package, returned to work yesterday following a marathon meeting between representatives of the ministries of labour, finance and their union.

At that meeting, it was agreed, among other things, that negotiations would resume tomorrow.

Public hospitals were adversely affected by the nurses’ action.

The police, on the other hand, who are yet to broker a new salary agreement with the government for the 2006 to 2008 contract period, have threatened to protest this week if the government did not place a reasonable wage and fringe benefits offer on the table.

The opposition leader used Friday night’s campaign meeting to call on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to intervene in the salary negotiations, in a bid to have the disputes settled promptly.

“I say to the prime minister, you cannot be sitting down and have the hospitals shutting down… You have the policemen threatening that if they don’t get a good agreement next week (this week) they are going to lock down too.

You are the prime minister, you have ministers to assist you, but you are the one who has the ultimate responsibility for running the affairs of the country, so do something,” Golding urged.