ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The Public Workers Union (PWU) says the government has so far this year failed to honour an agreement reached for a five per cent salary increase for workers at the country’s lone community college because it wants to renegotiate the package.
PWU president, Daizy Hazzard, said that the T A Marryshow Community College receives a subvention from the government through the Ministry of Education’s budgetary allocations.
But she told a news conference that after agreement had been reached between the government negotiating team and the union, the Cabinet is now indicating it wants to renegotiate the accord.
“There is a request from the Cabinet requesting to undo what has been agreed upon,” she told reporters, while explaining that such a move comes after nine months of negotiations.
“It is devastating because that’s not what we want to go back to tell our members. It is unprecedented when negotiations are concluded, and the Cabinet comes back to say we are not satisfied to honour what the agents we have put in place to negotiate did on our behalf,” she said.
“We are not honouring it, go back and renegotiate is what we are told, but that is unprecedented, that is unheard of. There were nine months for the Cabinet to give its input, nine months for the Cabinet to have a say, nine months for the Cabinet to decide we cannot agree,” she said.
Hazzard said that instead of ratifying the 5% payment to college workers, the Cabinet is asking the union and workers to accept a percentage increase reflective of 2017. “But we are in the year 2025. The Cabinet is saying that the condition to pay the five per cent for 2025 is for the TAMCC workers to accept three per cent for 2026 to 2028,” she added.
Hazzard said the Dickon Mitchell government is arguing that the possibility of war in the Caribbean and the reduction in inflation are among the reasons the Cabinet is presenting for renegotiating the increase in salary.
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