Chen

While lauding Prime Minister Bruce Golding's recent move to take a 15 per cent pay cut, president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF), Wayne Chen, has indicated that Government was following the lead of the private sector rather than the suggestion it was the other way around.

Chen told The Gleaner yesterday that Golding's effort was similar to initiatives taken by leaders in the private sector since the onset of the global economic recession.

During his broadcast to the nation on Sunday, the prime minister also called on his colleague members of parliament to sacrifice 10 per cent of their salaries.

Commenting on the prospect of private-sector leaders taking a similar cut in their salaries, Chen said individuals often failed to realise that many private-sector heads owned their companies and so, with a downturn in business, had already taken a cut in income.

The JEF head claimed there was a significant number of private-sector companies in which executives had already been asked to voluntarily take reductions and many had also given up perks and bonuses.

"That is something that the private sector has already led on," he said.

A great move

Chen, however, acknowledged that the PM's decision to take a pay cut was a great move.

Chief executive officer of Manpower and Maintenance Services Limited, Jamaica's largest janitorial company, Audrey Hinchcliffe, yesterday admitted that her company had also decided to implement a wage freeze for an initial one-year period.

"Our pay is already small, so we couldn't go for any cut," Hinchcliffe said.

She noted that all staff members had agreed to the wage freeze, from senior to lower-end employees.

At the same time, university lecturer, Martin Henry, said Golding's decision to take a 15 per cent cut in salary and to ask parliamentarians to follow suit was perhaps sentimentally important and that it might generate good political capital for the Government.

"But in terms of economic reality, the savings to be achieved are not significant," he said.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com