General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) Thomas Letang has announced that the Union has begun the process of commencing salary negotiations with the government.
The Union held a meeting with public sector workers on Thursday, March 28, to discuss the executive draft proposals.
“We have not commenced negotiations with the government in respect of salary negotiations for the period 2021 to 2024,” Letang told Dominica News Online (DNO) during an interview on Friday. “We only present our proposal to the government after the general membership has endorsed or after they have made their own recommendations and we have taken that into consideration and then we submit it to the government.”
He continued, “So the government has not offered anything, because the government has not received our proposal and we have not received any proposal from the government. We are just starting the process.”
Letang pointed out that the DPSU has about 26 points that will be presented to the government for consideration.
As it relates to salary increase, Letang explained that “for the first year we were proposing 4 percent, 5 percent, and 6 percent.”
“When we are preparing our proposal a number of things are taken into consideration including the rate of inflation,” he stated. “So, the 15 percent takes into consideration the rate of inflation, 4, 5 and 6.”
Furthermore, he noted that at the meeting the members felt that the figure was too low and they felt that it should be higher.
“What we have agreed is that the figure needs to be revised, so we will look at it again. But in the meantime, we have asked the members, especially those who are very vocal, to assist us by providing justification for any level of increase higher than what the executive has proposed,” Letang explained.
He added, “We will arrange to meet with a cross-section of the membership so that we can discuss what level of increase that they are talking about and come up with justifications. So, definitely, we will look back at our figure and we will make the necessary change wherever it has to be done.”
Meanwhile, Letang gave the reason why a police officer from the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF) was asked to leave the meeting on Thursday.
“In terms of a police officer being asked to leave the meeting, we have nothing to hide…,” he said. “We want our members to be very free in expressing themselves and we believe that the presence of police at our meeting is a way of intimidating our members and therefore we want the members to feel very free.”
Letang revealed that the police officer was the first person to have entered the room.
“He took a seat and we felt that his presence would prevent members from expressing themselves, because we did not know what his motive was,” he remarked. “The same applies to the media. When we are having our meetings what we do is when myself and the president are making our contribution or presentation we have no fear.”
He continued, “We allow the media to take everything that we said.”
Letang added, “As soon as we open up for members, some members who don’t feel comfortable with them being on camera when they are talking, we always ask the media to make sure that recorders are off and cameras are off, so that was the position.”
Someone got to call out the blatant arhassness when you see it. How the hell can a government see it fit to give cabinet and the PM a 30% raise and the union boss coming and ask for such pittance for his people? Come on Mr. Letang, you are now exposing you rear end as a cabal missionary. Are you serious? So only the SOS and his cabinet must be shielded from inflation etc? Man you are out of sync with the common people and need to go get some much needed rest. I still cant believe that you have the cahunas to ask for such pittance. Another reason why the country is stuck in reverse. Leaders have no vison so the people continue to perish.
4% 5% 6%? Lets do some math. Lets say your salary is EC$3,000. raises of EC$120, 150, or 180 wont lake much of a difference. If your salary is EC$2,000. that is just $80, 100 and $120.
The problem is , dominica has no industry. We have no jobs. We have very limited high paying jobs. We do not export mostly import. NEP is a strain on the treasury. The private sector id dying. Cost of living is rising exponentially. Raising salaries usually results in something else being raised on the back end to cover it.
My Brother GET out of there. How long have you been negotiating? Negotiating my arm. Call a damn strike. Shut the island down, and your negotiating will no longer be. Infact your demand will be met Promptu. Thats negotiations with a difference. You guys have not realized that this talking, talking, talking with Skerrit and his crooks are irrelevant?
Amen. Take a page from Charles Savarin himself. Shut it down. We here playing afraid
Letang is perhaps the most ineffective union leader i have seen. Why has the membership stuck with this guys, only God knows.
I support the move to ask the LAZY police officer to leave. Police officers have their own union. Those lazies need to find work to do, or go to Haiti to restore order. This is the only country with so many LAZY police officers, that are only interested in taking pictures of people.
What a compromised police force!