Amid the excitement of the continuing Crop Over and Emancipation celebrations, the reality of our day to day existence goes on and the upcoming wages negotiations between the Government and unions representing the public servants, scheduled to start within a few days of the end of the season, confirms this truth for those who might be inclined to put such matters aside.
Whatever may be contained in the proposals submitted by any union, the position is clear. The deficit must be tackled and expenditure has to be cut while revenue needs to be increased.
It is also equally clear that the wages bill for Government is a major chunk of its expenditure and that the increasing cost of living is biting hard into the earnings of those who work in the public service, and elsewhere for that matter.
But the immediate problem for the Government and the unions is how to handle the negotiations so that the needs of the workers are met while the Government keeps as closely as it can to the policy of containing expenditure and reducing the deficit.
Consideration of this problem cannot be confined to the Gvernment, for the union has an interest in maintaining employment and minimizing layoffs. This cannot be done if strident positions are held on unyielding proposals for wage increases.
These are not easy times for the economy. The fallout from the recent recession is still scattered about the international economy and sovereign economies are as affected as are the individual household economies.
Yet, however strong may be the pressure from the hard-pressed workers, responsible leadership must be the order of the day, and whether this or that policy is the better approach must not be a matter for the negotiators who must deal with the reality of the situation.
We note that the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), through its Acting General Secretary Miss Rosalind Smith, has made it clear that the matter of wage increases was one for settlement between the two sides in the negotiation, and that calls for a wage freeze remain a sensitive one.
We understand this stance because as the NUPW has previously said the maintenance of employment is its priority, and in a tight financial position, workers may prefer to remain employed and to hold strain rather than to face the probability of being sent home, in the face of strong claims for public servants to be given heavy increases.
The statement on Tuesday last from the Minister of Finance that the economy was recovering and that there was an increase of $43.9 million in revenue for April 1 to June 30 this year as compared with last year must not blind anyone to the reality that we are not out of the woods.
Responsible caution must still be the watchword.