Clarke urges workers to temper reactions to errors in December salaries

Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke is reporting that there will be errors with some salaries next week, even as anxiety grows within the public sector over the outcome of the new compensation review system.

He is urging Government employees not to react adversely, stressing that the ministry has undertaken an “ambitious” task and is working to organise the salaries of approximately 110,000 employees into 16 categories.

The current public sector system has 345 salary scales, which Clarke said could not continue.

“No matter what, the computer might generate next week, and I tell you from now, the computer might generate in some cases an aberration or an error,” Clarke told public sector workers gathered at financial literacy seminar at the Ambassadors off Hagley Park Road in St Andrew today.

“The system is so complicated, where we have different arrangements around the public sector and this exercise shows why we have to make these changes and because of that great diversity of arrangements around the public sector, it almost certainly will throw up aberrations,” he added.

Clarke said when those aberrations arise, “we can’t be disorderly in how we go about bringing attention to it”.

The Government has sought to implement the public sector compensation review, effective April 1, to overhaul the structure of salaries and other emoluments in the public service to make it more equitable.

Cabinet in January approved the award of a US$959,094 contract for the continued provision of consulting services for the compensation review for the Government of Jamaica.

The contract was awarded to Ernst and Young Services Limited.

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