NEGOTIATIONS between the Government and the workers’ organisations representing its employees are expected to start in earnest today.

But the outlook for completing the negotiations by the end of March — as Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips insists — looks bleak, and the issue of whether any increase at all can fit into the government’s efforts to reduce its wage bill to nine per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) is clouding the issue.

“We are looking forward to hear what the Government has to say to us when we meet next week to start the negotiations,” Keith Comrie, spokesman for the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), told the Jamaica Observer on Friday.

Comrie confirmed that the negotiations are yet to get off the ground, although the 11 unions which fall under the JCTU submitted their claims about two weeks ago, and had expected an earlier start to the talks.

Helene Davis-Whyte, vice-president of the JCTU and general secretary of the major union representing local government workers, the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, said then that the confederation expected the talks — which should have started from last November — would have commenced immediately, adding that the workers do not anticipate prolonged negotiations.

Minister with portfolio responsibility in the Ministry of Finance, Horace Dalley, in responding to a question from newly appointed Opposition spokesman on labour and the public service, Rudyard Spencer, told the House of Representatives two weeks ago that, in terms of meeting the IMF deadline for public sector salaries to be reduced to nine per cent of GDP by 2016, the latest figure he had was that it was down to 10.7 per cent in 2013/14.

However, the Observer has been reliably informed that the figure is now down to 9.8 per cent of GDP in 2014/15. However, if the Government is to meet the target in 2015/16, which starts on April 1, it would have been expected to dip below nine per cent in 2014/15, allowing room for the proposed pay increase for the public sector workers.

Last Thursday, Dr Phillips told journalists at a post-Estimates tabling briefing at his ministry Thursday that there is provision for about a 3.4 per cent increase in the workers’ compensation this year, as well as an allocation in the contingencies for an additional $11.1 billion.

“We have made provision for an increase in salary in 2015/16 of about 3.4 per cent, not including what we have provided in contingencies, pending the completion of the negotiations with the public sector workers,” he said.

“What you see in the wages and salaries provision is a provision for retroactive payments to firefighters, health workers, correctional services and medical officers, and there is a provision also for the 2.5 per cent increment to be paid to public public sector workers, separate and apart from what we settle as the wage increase. We are also including the $25,000 one-off payment for all public sector workers,” he noted.

However, trade union representatives, including Comrie, are concerned about whether the provisions are enough to allow Dalley to make what they describe as “a meaningful” wage offer when they meet.

President of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union Senator Kavan Gayle, said that he is also concerned that a number of the fringe benefits in lieu of increased pay, which the Government had offered in the current three-year Heads of Agreement, have not been fulfilled.

“These will have to be addressed before we even deal with the new claims,” Senator Gayle insisted.