BELIZE CITY, Mon. Feb. 14, 2022– In a letter dated February 4, written to the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño, the president of the Public Service Union (PSU), Dean Flowers, opposed a proposed adjustment in the payscale of legal professionals in the public service, which, according to him, will result in a 17% increase in the salaries of those working in those offices. The Attorney General, Hon. Magali Marin-Young, has publicly said that what is being proposed is actually a 7% salary increase for Crown Counsels working in the government service, an increase that, according to her, was approved under the Barrow administration and is owed to them.
The PSU, in its letter to the PM, however, called the submission “unconscionable,” and remarked that it would be shameful for those legal officers and the office of the Ministry of Finance to support such an increase. The PSU has pointed out that those lawyers are “no more special”—no more technically proficient or diligent in carrying out their duties—than the professionals who work in other departments within the public sector, and yet he noted that those legal public servants already enjoy higher salaries than their colleagues.
“I want to state that we have respect for those officers, because they are public officers like ourselves. But I want us to speak without any apology. They are no more special than other technical experts in different fields that we have within the public service: absolutely no different, and absolutely no more special than any other expert in the public service. And so, we felt compelled to state to the Prime Minister that we will not tolerate that anomaly or that further anomaly to be expounded upon, because legal services officers—as it is—enjoy better compensation, much to the detriment of other public officers, and other expert officers and technical officers in the public service,” Flowers stated.
He said that the union registered their “utmost disgust and objection for any consideration” of such a proposal by the Solicitor General. He further noted a widening gap between the pay scale enjoyed by legal members of the public service and other highly qualified technical experts within the government service, and he pointed to the discriminatory nature of any further salary increase that would benefit just one category of public workers.
“In no way, shape, or form, am I putting down legal services officers, because this is something that I believe–and I want to call them out as well, I’m not fighting with them—in that they should have said to the Sol. Gen., this is unconscionable, this is foolishness, this is nonsense, this is selfishness, this is being very egocentric. We cannot in good conscience support your proposal for a 17% increase for us, while our fellow brothers and sisters, who perhaps spent more than us and who work harder than us, to continue to be subjected to a 10% cut while you are proposing for us to benefit from a 17% increase when we are already higher paid than most public officers in the system, including technically qualified officers,” he said.
He claimed that in addition to the proposal, a submission has been made to purchase a van to transport legal services officers to work while other public officers are required to use their own mode of transportation, and he estimated the price of that van to be in the range of $90,000.
“We have been made to understand that legal services officers are in receipt of many allowances, including a housing and transportation allowance. So is it that, in that submission that it was proposed for it to be removed from them? The audacity of the leadership in the Solicitor General’s ministry is mindboggling, it’s really mindboggling, and it needs to be condemned and called out,” Flowers said.
He remarked that the proposed payscale submitted for the legal services officers “blows the public service payscale out of the waters”, and called it a disgrace, but he added that the office of the Solicitor General may have skipped an important step that he said is necessary in any such payscale adjustment process: consultation with the Ministry of the Public Service and the PSU.
“It is also come to our attention that they are submitting or are about to submit for consideration their own regulations. They don’t want to be governed by the Public Service Regulations, as if they’re not public officers. Now these are supposed to be people of legal, sound minds, and it never seemed to have dawned on them that once you are a pubic officer you must be governed by the Public Service Regulations. In addition to that—unless of course you fall within the judicial services or the security forces – but in addition to that, the disrespect coming out of this office towards the Ministry of Public Service and the Public Service Union, because the regulations that govern the Solicitor General and everybody else beneath her is clear—that where classification of post, grievances, salary and allowances and the terms of condition of employment, those must be done in conjunction, between the Ministry of Public Service and the Public Service Union. That is the recognised representative of public officers.”
The Joint Union Negations Team (JUNT), comprising unions representing the various public servants of the country, is scheduled to meet on February 16 with representatives from the government to continue the discussion of the data presented by the GoB reps on the current fiscal state of the country and whether it is possible to bring an early end to the 10% cut to the salaries of these workers. The PSU president commented, however, that the government has no fiscal strategy or roadmap; and likened their spending to that of drunken sailors—pointing out that they have no benchmark to determine a suitable time to call for a reinstatement of public servants’ full salaries.
“When you are dealing with a government, and government—red or blue—who do not have a fiscal strategy statement or, a strategic direction in which they want to grow the economy, it’s difficult for us to have a fresh in terms of—or a benchmark, in terms of where we want to be, or where we really want to go. What is the sense of budgeting? Each and every year, you pass a revenue appropriation bill, every March or April of each year. And then you come back, and you ask for more, and you ask for more, and you ask for more. But, you fail to identify where the revenues will come to offset the request for additional expenditures. Governments, on the whole, PUDP, can be classified as drunken sailors, spending like drunken sailors, the people’s money. They don’t have any plans,” Flowers asserted.
In regard to the current state of mind of many public servants, Flowers said, “Some public officers believe that they have no reason to be afraid anymore. And so, it will be interesting to see what would be the end result of that meeting on the 16th, because, guided by the sentiments that are being expressed across this country, 2022 may very well be a year of reckoning for the political parties that have raped and pillaged our resources, and who have enriched themselves, their families and their political cronies. It could very well be a year of reckoning and, we all just need to be alert, prepared, and ready for anything. So we will know what happens next.”
According to local reports, Hon. Marin-Young has said that what is being proposed is a 7% salary increase (rather than 17%) for legal professionals in the public service that had been approved by the Barrow administration between 2014 and 2017 but was never applied to their salaries. She said that the GoB’s curent efforts are aimed simply at correcting the issue for Crown Counsels. PSU president Flowers said that the proposal is currently before the Prime Minister, and that they are calling for any increase in the salaries of legal services officers to be put into effect for all other public servants.
“We’re saying that it is before the Prime Minister, and we’re saying, we object to it. We will stand up against it, and if there is any, any increase in salaries to legal services officers, that increase must apply to every single public officer, every single public officer….” Flowers said.