THE unions representing public sector workers have now all accepted the Government’s offer to pay them a seven per cent salary increase due to them from 2009, ending their longrunning dispute.

The wage agreement could be signed on Friday if the unions agree and after Prime Minister Bruce Golding returns to the island, Senator Arthur Williams, minister without portfolio with responsibility for the public service told the Observer yesterday afternoon.

But with the wage issue settled, the unions have indicated that much work still needs to be done to improve conditions of service, especially with cuts in the number of government workers looming.

Williams, in a press release, said the Police Federation formally agreed to the offer yesterday. “This now means that all public sector groups have accepted the Government’s offer to settle the outstanding wage issue,” he said in the release.

He also thanked the workers for their “patience and understanding of the difficulties which faced the country and which resulted in the wage increase not being instituted before now”.

Williams, promoted from minister of state to a full Cabinet position in last week’s Cabinet reshuffle, also asked for “the continued co-operation of public sector workers as the Government moves to implement the recommendations of the Public Sector Transformation Unit and to agree on other public sector reform issues which are of critical importance to the country’s continued relationship with the International Monetary Fund”.

In May, Prime Minister Golding announced in Parliament that 10,000 jobs would be slashed from the public sector over the next five years under a rationalisation programme that will save the country between $40 billion and $50 billion over the period and improve efficiency and productivity.

Commenting on the settlement yesterday, president of the Medical Doctors Association of Jamaica Dr Shane Alexis, while saying he was happy that an agreement had been reached, expressed hoped for a greater spirit of communication and mutual respect as the groups moved to implement the public sector transformation process.

“We hope that each group will be given time to consult with its members and to sensitise them on how the transformation will impact on the level of service they will be expected to deliver,” Dr Alexis said. He indicated that while groups such as doctors, nurses, teachers and the police were not expected to lose their jobs, cuts in the personnel and budgets in other areas of the public service could impact on performance.

Meanwhile, Williams acknowledged that inadequate infrastructure and specialised personnel were creating problems in some areas and negotiations would continue.

“The whole matter of training across the public sector is paramount,” Williams said, adding that in some cases transformation may not result in job losses. “We may see a repositioning of people, a movement across instead of a movement out,” he said.

The signing of the Heads of Agreement was postponed from Friday, June 24 as the Police Federation said it needed to consult further with its membership before accepting the offer.