After months of negotiation, public sector workers began to receive their owed back payments early Friday morning.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced Thursday that government workers with at least one month’s salary owed will be receiving their money.
He explained that it may take time for all government workers, especially recent retirees, to receive their payments.
“Those who would have retired during the negotiating period, they too are eligible [but] they are not in a position to get pay today because we have to do the research and determine when they would have retired and what percentage of the back pay is due to them,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that it may take more than two weeks for all workers to get paid.
In October, Browne announced that public servants would receive a long-awaited salary increase – and the corresponding back pay dating back some years – no later than December.
However, concerns were raised when the Prime Minister warned in Parliament earlier this month that workers may not receive their monies in full until 2023, with no definitive timeline given.
Earlier this year, several protest actions occurred within the public sector including by employees at the Central Board of Health, state media ABS, the Fiennes Institute, the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), and the Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital.
The protests were in relation to outstanding payments owed to workers by the government.
By Robert A. Emmanuel