WITH approximately nine weeks to the end of financial year 2014/15, there are concerns as to whether the Government can conclude a new wage and fringe benefits agreement with its employees by March 31.

Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips told a press briefing at Jamaica House yesterday that he hopes the negotiations will start within two weeks. But he admitted that he has no clue when the talks would conclude, although he has insisted on a March 31 deadline to meet budget requirements.

“I can only give you a certainty about the beginning, but I can’t give you certainty about the end,” Dr Phillips said in response to a question raised at yesterday’s briefing.

“But we would hope, and it will take our best efforts, to achieve conclusion, at least with the majority of the (bargaining) groups, if not every single one, by the start of the next fiscal year (April 1),” Phillips added.

In the meantime, the Jamaica Observer can confirm that the main group which be affected by the negotiations — an 11-union ‘centralised bargaining unit’ representing the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) — has not yet submitted its claims.

The team, which represents all the member unions of the JCTU except the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) which had submitted its claims weeks ago and is still awaiting a meeting, is hoping to submit its claims by weekend.

“We met last Wednesday and finalised the draft of our claims, and we are now awaiting responses from the various unions. We hope that we will be able to submit them to the Ministry of Finance by the end of the week,” JCTU vice-president and head of the negotiating team for the centralised bargaining unit Helene Davis-Whyte told the Observer last night.

Whyte said that it would be possible to complete the negotiations by the end of March as the unions expect the negotiations to start immediately.

“… The workers do not want a prolonged negotiations. They want it to be settled as quickly as possible,” Davis Whyte added.

However, President of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) Kavan Gayle, one of the trade unions in the centralised unit, was not as optimistic.

“I don’t see it possible,” he said. “I agree that the workers want it to be completed as quickly as possible, but we have to ensure that we negotiate the most suitable package on their behalf,” he said.

He said that there were several issues still outstanding from the 2012/2015 Heads of Agreement. “We intend to put them back on the table, and we want to have them settled with timelines for their implementation,” he said.

Dr Phillips said yesterday that the Government remains committed to the overall target of reducing public sector salaries to nine per cent of GDP by next year.