APSSM President Says GOB’s Second Proposal Is “Worst Off”

President of the Association of Public Service Senior Managers, Sharon Fraser, also weighed in on the government’s four percent proposal. She chided the Briceno administration for attaching pensions reform as a condition to the proposed four percent salary adjustment. According to Fraser, this is a step back from GOB’s initial proposal.

Sharon Fraser, President, APSSM

“Now as sister Nadia would have said, there is the process. So now while it is that it was the joint councils meeting, one still has to go back to the general membership and in fact let them express in the best way they know how whether they are accepting the content than the letter.  The situation is we have gotten a letter that is worst of than what we got in the first place. In the first place, while it is they were offering three then the remainder over two years, it was not conditional on anything. Now we got an offer and yes they raise it to four, but it is conditional on pension reform and in fact starting pension with new comers and the proposed figure is five percent. So it actually put public officers worst off, it is worst. Now, everything is conditional. I will tell you when we proposed that eight percent no pension reformed was attached to that. So I don’t know how all of a sudden they have tied down that eight percent that was to represent everything that is happening, cost of living, inflation rate, so how now that ties in. We have been talking pension reform from last year, has nothing to do with this eight pint five pervne.t. So I find that the letter is not reflecting what we had talked about around the table. Now saying  we will give you four but you have to accept this, you have to tie it to performance, a number of thing it is tied to that was never a part of the discussion.”