Legal officers restive as concerns linger over compensation review

While industrial action initially considered to coincide with Monday’s opening of the Circuit Court’s Hillary Term across the island appears to have been averted, the legal officers remain restive over the public sector compensation restructuring exercise.

Among the sore points for them are the salary bands and the absorption of benefits such as travel and transportation allowances into their pay under the proposed compensation reform exercise by the Government.

Industrial action by the legal officers, which includes all the government lawyers as well as prosecutors in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, registrars and judicial clerks and clerks of courts, would have significantly impacted operations in the Government and possibly crippled proceedings in the island’s court.

Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn told The Gleaner that she was not aware of any planned action and is expecting a smooth start to the opening of the court term.

The disgruntled officers, through the Legal Officers’ Staff Association (LOSA), have been registering their discontent with the Government’s compensation review process since last May.

The LOSA does not believe the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service has been addressing the concerns since then.

However, industrial action was put on hold following a meeting of the executive of the LOSA last Friday.

In an advisory seen by The Gleaner, the legal officers were told that the executive has called off today’s action as some LOSA members believed it may be premature and the executive was unable to reach the majority of its approximately 350 members to canvass their position.

When contacted, the group’s president, Malike Kellier, said there was no decision for any action on Monday.

He explained that the LOSA executive met last Wednesday and that persons had voted on possible actions going forward, but no final decision had been taken.

While not denying that the group was contemplating industrial action, Kellier said: “The most I can tell you is that persons are restive with the current negotiation and the general membership of LOSA does not feel that the Government is negotiating in good faith.”

LOSA had noted that it was displeased with the details of the proposed restructuring exercise and was also dissatisfied with the loss of monetary and non-monetary benefits, to include robing, laundry, library and qualification increments.

The association had said that the consultant who had recommended the changes, specifically for the transportation and travelling allowance, was out of touch with the realities of the public service.

LOSA’s Salaries and Benefits Chairman Shorna-Kaye Henry, in the meantime, is warning that the association will not sign off on the restructuring until the Government addresses their concerns.

She said the salary bands in which the Government is proposing to place legal officers are inadequate when weighed against their tasks, and the evaluation tool used to determine rank or band is flawed.

Travel allowance

Further, Henry said the absorption of the travel allowances in the salary is putting legal officers at a disadvantage.

“When we do our preliminary calculations, some officers are looking to take home $50,000 less than what they have taken home before, because a significant portion of our salaries would have been covered in the travel allowance, and that was a non-taxable amount.

“Some of our officers travel every day, going to court in all the 14 parishes, and then you’re going to remove that travel allowance and say to officers that you’re going to get $100 per mile and mileage is sufficient. What about upkeep? What about the other things that are important?” she asked.

Noting that there are several grouses, she pointed out that, while the Government likes to say the restructuring will be better for their pensions, it is yet to establish a pension fund for them as mandated by law.

In the meantime, Llewellyn said that she is aware of the concerns relating to travel allowances, which were raised by her legal officers during a general staff meeting, adding that she is to be fully updated via letter. She said that she is also willing to bring their concerns to the higher authority if she is asked to intervene, but cannot offer any guarantees.

“The subject of salary and allowances will always be a focal point of grouses, in terms of the legal department, because there is always a long-held view, and credible view, that sometimes the bureaucracy does not understand the work that goes into what legal officers do – certainly at our office, the attorney general’s office, and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel – how really onerous it is, and that more could be done in terms of recognising in a tangible way through compensation,” she said.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com