Duke says no zero offer

PUBLIC Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke is disputing a “nauseous conversation” which, he said, is being circulated on social media, that public officers are being offered “zero-zero-zero” by the Finance Ministry.

In a Facebook live message yesterday, Duke said a zero per cent offer had been made earlier in the year but this had been withdrawn by the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO).

“However when we continued negotiations in the month of September 2018, we were very careful to place the question on the table quite clearly, and we asked the CPO whether it is zero per cent still or is it being removed, and the CPO concurred that it is being removed. There is no zero-zero-zero per cent offer on the table.

“We met with the CPO in the month of October 2018, the CPO agreed that all workers would have lost the value of some 13 per cent minimum from their 2013 salaries that was due to core inflation.”

Duke said however, the union is adamant that the value lost should not be tied to core inflation but to headline inflation which is closer to some 20 per cent.

He once again reiterated that no zero per cent offer had been made to public servants and the PSA had instead laid a “generous’ wage proposal for the CPO’s consideration.

“As your PSA president I am working assiduously to bring negotiations to a close. We put something to the CPO, we are hoping to meet with her this month in November. If all goes well we can tie up our negotiations, if not we will continue negotiations.” He then advised members to “stop listening to those paper tigers who hide behind Facebook” and other social media platforms and instead contact the union for regular updates.