Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley on May 24 attempted to allay the fears of public servants, promising they will have their salaries paid in full, predominantly cash, with the remainder in bonds, should the Government introduce forced savings.
She was addressing the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Virtual Service of Hope and Thanksgiving which was streamed online as the administration commemorated its second anniversary in office.
Mottley prioritised the need to create economic space to help Barbados rebound from the effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Mottley suggested the new concept of forced savings equated to a “national meeting turn”. She had first mooted the idea two weeks ago, and members of the Social Partnership and Government’s financial advisors started a dialogue on the process last week.
“The bottom line is that I’ve always been sensitive to issues of wage cuts. The Barbados Labour Party was able to restore the eight per cent wage cut which was foisted on public servants [in 1991]. We are not interested in cutting a person’s pay. But we are interested in creating a scenario where we can carry as many Barbadians as possible and, to that extent, what we are proposing is a form of forced savings, what I would call a national meeting turn.” (BA)
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