~ Cost-of-living adjustment is for all workers ~
PHILIPSBURG--Cost-of-living (COL) adjustment is for all workers in St. Maarten, in the private and public sector, says Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) President Claire Elshot.
She told reporters on Wednesday that the intention of the adjustment was to maintain the buying power of workers by adjusting their salaries based on the increase in the cost of living each year. She said the impression was sometimes created that the adjustment was only for civil servants and teachers, but this was not the case.
She said too that unions should not have to fight for this payment, as the COL had already been established by former Antillean Labour Minister Burney Elhage, along with the 2006 minimum wage increase.
Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams had told reporters at Wednesday's Council of Ministers live press briefing, which she alone attended, that all efforts should be made to have the payment made in 2012. She said while government was not prepared to change the budget, an amendment would have to be made.
"Government feels that all must be done and all avenues must be looked at in order to make payment in 2012 possible," she said. "And I know it's a broad statement, because we don't have all of the answers as to how [the payment will be made-Ed.]. We will not reverse the budget that we have now that is being discussed. We acknowledged that we will have to come with a budget amendment and these are the things that are being looked at, at this moment," she added.
Elshot said that unions didn't expect to have to "go through tedious" Tripartite Committee meetings to justify the payment all over again.
The controversy over the 2010 cost-of-living payment arose after the unions received a letter from government recently, inviting them to a meeting to discuss how the payment could be made without any financial implication for government. Unions were also concerned that the payment, which was supposed to have been made in early 2012, had not been budgeted for.
"COL is an acquired right of all workers," Elshot stressed.
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