A Chief Executive Officer took to social media to hit back at Dean Flowers, President of the Public Service Union (PSU). The CEO of the Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour, and Local Government’s, Valentino Shal, a News 5 article with the caption, “Huh? This bally oblivious to the what CEOs do or the pretend to be oblivious.”
Shal’s remarks follow an interview in which Flowers criticised the performance of some CEOs, saying their high salaries don’t reflect their results.
According to Flowers, the unions are not challenging CEO-earned salaries but rather calling for a fair and balanced salary structure across the service; public servants also “contribute to the growth and development of the public service.”
Flowers also stood behind the Joint Unions Negotiating Team (JUNT) unanimous rejection of the government’s proposed 3% salary increase for public officers. He called the offer inadequate, especially since Cabinet CEOs received a 15% raise post-election, on top of existing perks and allowances.
“We’re not questioning whether a CEO should earn sixty thousand dollars a year, seventy-six thousand a year, or eighty-eight thousand dollars a year. We’re not questioning that,” Flowers said in the interview on Tuesday. “We’re saying that if we’re all going to contribute to the growth and development of the public service, then the structure has to be one that equitably distributes the benefits.”