THE Ministry of Finance and Planning said yesterday that the Government has delivered on its promise of making a one-off payment of $25,000 to public sector workers, as well as the commencement of payments under the health sector reclassification.

Government and trade unions agreed to the one-off payment to permanent, temporary and fixed-term contracts employees, under the Public Sector Heads of Agreement for contract period 2012-2015, signed on March 6, 2013.

Two additional payments of $25,000 will become due in August 2014 and 2015, respectively.

The finance ministry said, too, that retroactive payments for the period April 1, 2013 to July 1, 2013, under the Health Sector reclassification programme, were made yesterday.

Minister with responsibility for the public service, Horace Dalley, had announced earlier that Cabinet had approved the reclassification exercise, which would be implemented at a cost $7 billion over a three-year period, in keeping with the Government’s Medium Term Economic Programme. The payments of $2.33 billion each year will end in the 2015/2016 fiscal year.

“This reclassification may not be perfect, but it will substantially streamline the occupational groupings in the health sector and because of the complexity of the exercise, a Reclassification Appeals Tribunal (CAT) will also be formed with representation from various groups within the health sector including the unions,” the finance ministry quoted Dalley as saying.