PM promises wage increase

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is promising a wage increase to public servants should the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) be returned to office in the February 11 General Election.

She said that group had been benefiting from increases since the BLP was elected in 2018.

Mottley was addressing a public meeting in Layne’s Road, Brittons Hill, St Michael, on Thursday night in support of candidates Kirk Humphrey in St Michael South, Marsha Caddle in St Michael South Central and William Duguid in Christ Church West. Parts of the Brittons Hill district fall into the three constituencies.

The Prime Minister said that in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic which shut down the country beginning in 2020, and Barbados having two $1 billion structural adjustment programmes, public servants were given two additional wage increases.

“As we speak, we are waiting on the regrading and know that we will have to go for what will be your fourth wage increase before the end of this year should you give us back the Government,” she told the crowd.

She also referenced the appointment of thousands of public servants under her party’s watch, saying that some of the 2 500 from the November/ December period would be getting their confirmation letters this week.

Mottley, the candidate for St Michael North East, said her party was about progressive measures aimed at improving the lives of ordinary Barbadians.

As a result, she pointed out, it had increased the minimum hourly wage rate and gave to families whose principal breadwinner worked in places such as gas stations or shops, the opportunity to take home $713 more monthly working a 40-hour week.

A reverse tax credit was given back to offset the Value Added Tax, along with the expanded VAT-exempted basket of goods, she said.

“Look around in Wildey, look around in The Pine. These are the people who constitute the majority of the beneficiaries of the Labour Party’s policies. What foolishness you telling me that we only see big people. You need big people sometimes to create investment and to create jobs, but if you don’t take care of the people who take care of you, God help you, and that is the problem of the DLP (Democratic Labour Party) for the last 15 years,” Mottley told the gathering.

For those making around $25 000 a year and juggling their finances, they were encouraged to pay taxes, but at the end of the fiscal year when Government coffers had “a piece of change”, every cent paid in taxes was returned under the compensatory income credit, Mottley said. ( AC)

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