00:00Former Labour Minister Jennifer Batiste Primus tells the TV6 Morning Edition
00:05that any agreement struck between the PSA and the CPO should have been properly formalized.
00:12She points out that a video circulating in the media shows the PSA president and the CPO signing a document
00:20and she's now asking what exactly was signed.
00:23This after Finance Minister Dave Tanku has confirmed that PSA members will receive a Christmas boost
00:31through an advance on the arrears owed to them.
00:35However, when it comes to the PSA's push for the entire $3.8 billion in back pay to be issued in cash,
00:43he's stepped short of giving a clear yes, a position the PSA president says was not part of their agreement.
00:50Today, Batiste Primus says the PSA president has found herself in a ticklish situation.
00:57The president of the PSA is another woman like myself.
01:02I feel somewhat sorry for her because she is up a literal picketry, as the old people would say,
01:13and in order to extricate herself from it, a pound of flesh would be left on that picket trench.
01:20She is not clear how to extricate herself.
01:24Batiste Primus says there must be clarity on what the CPO means by an initial advance.
01:31She questions whether this refers to one, two or three months of pay being given up front
01:37or whether the government is talking about issuing bonds instead.
01:41The former Labour minister says the situation is obvious for anyone who understands the process,
01:48yet the PSA president remains silent on the realities.
01:52What we find happening right now is that the president of the PSA is afraid to identify the elephant in the room.
02:02You cannot blame the chief personnel officer.
02:05You cannot blame the chief personnel officer for this situation.
02:12Everyone is aware that the chief personnel officer takes his instructions from the minister of finance.
02:23Batiste Primus says what the PSA head has signed is known as a partial agreement,
02:29and such an agreement cannot be registered with the special tribunal of the industrial court.
02:35She further asks how such an error could have occurred,
02:39noting that both parties must agree on what is documented.
02:44She says, given the finance minister's recent statement and reports in today's Express,
02:49it is clear that a key element of the agreement is missing.
02:53Batiste Primus believes the PSA president has been used, and now the government is moving forward.
03:00She was promoted at WASA.
03:03She received a salary increase.
03:05She was handsomely rewarded by this present government.
03:10And clearly, this present government has no further need for the president of the PSA.
03:16She has been used, and they are moving on, so that this impasse that has developed between the chief personnel officer and the PSA
03:30may very well have to go back to the special tribunal.
03:35Separately, she stresses that the PSA sets the standard for all public sector negotiations,
03:41and the government cannot treat other unions differently without risk.
03:46In the public sector, the PSA is the benchmark for the settlement of negotiation.
03:54And Marlon, let me tell you this, the government, that issue of parity, the government cannot,
04:01and I say it boldly, the government cannot treat the other public sector unions differently
04:09because there is an organization called the International Labour Organization
04:16to which unions can report the government.
04:20Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
