TRADE UNION LEADERS are watching and waiting to see how the Government will deal with the ballooning public-sector wage bill as the global financial meltdown takes its effect.

Already, minister without portfolio in the finance ministry, Dwight Nelson, is sending out warning signals.

He revealed that the Government's wage bill for this fiscal year is $111 billion and could rise significantly in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, based on increases already approved and others that are pending.

"There is nothing morally wrong with a wage freeze if the situation so demands," Nelson told journalists last week. "The fact of the matter is that no such decision has been made and all options will be examined by the Government."

Responding to report

Nelson was responding to a media report that a seven per cent wage increase for civil servants would not be paid on April 1 as scheduled.

Nelson declared that no decision would be made without extensive talks with the trade unions.

"We will be sitting down with the trade unions to discuss specifics. Whether or not we can agree to strategies and have these strategies implemented before the 31st of March is something that we need to look at," Nelson said. "The bottom line is we have to find a way to ensure that the public sector becomes more efficient," he added.

Up to yesterday, trade union leaders were no clearer on the Government's direction.

Nelson has indicated that the unions could be asked to consider having some civil servants sent home or accept a wage freeze as part of the measures.

Premature talk

But the union leaders say any talk of wage freeze or staff cut is premature as the discussions have not yet started.

"We, as partners, will meet and we will talk with the Government about the challenges being faced, but our first priority will be to see how to improve efficiency," St Patrice Ennis, general secretary of the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel, told The Sunday Gleaner.

"We have to look at the efficiency of the public service in this dispensation, but reducing waste has to be the first step before any action is taken against workers," Ennis added.

Ennis has the support of Vincent Morrison, president of the National Workers' Union.

"We will have to hear first from the Government what is its approach to an obvious crisis. In fact, we can't even say that there is a crisis because the minister hasn't given us the information," Morrison commented.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com