Jamaica Government To Begin Paying Out Retroactive Payments To Civil Servants

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The Jamaica government says it will on Friday begin retroactive payments to civil servants for the 2015/17 contract period.

Minister with responsibility for the Public Service in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Horace Dalley, said next week’s payments will reflect the four per cent equivalent increase on salaries for the first six months, April 1 to September 30.

He said that retroactive payments for October will be made in November, but gave no  indication as to how much the retroactive payments would cost the government that has a four year US$948.1 million Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Horace Dalley

Dalley who was speaking at the Heads of Agreement signing three public service ionstitutions, said that deferment of retroactive salary payments by a week, from the original October 22 timeline, resulted from delays by several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in submitting the requisite audit returns in time.

But he assured that the Finance Ministry has the money to make payments on October 30.

The 2015/17 Heads of Agreement, which was signed by the Government and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), sees public sector workers getting a four per cent salary increase in the first year and a further three per cent in the second, in addition to improvements on several fringe benefits.

Only three groups have not yet signed the wage agreement.

They are the Registered Nurses, represented by the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ); Jamaica Police Federation (JPF); and the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA).