The Government and the Apex Council will tomorrow convene a meeting to deliberate on the civil servants’ remuneration.
The meeting will be the third and final meeting between the Government and the civil servants’ representatives.
According to the law, if the parties fail to reach a consensus, the negotiations will be deemed as a deadlock. Apex Council chairperson Cecilia Alexander had this to say:
The meeting with Government has been scheduled for Monday. Legally this will be the last meeting between Government and civil servants regarding this matter.
We hope that we will reach an agreement. If we do not, it means we would have reached a deadlock and we can’t negotiate any further. These are the provisions of the law.
We are not privy to what the Government is bringing to the table on Monday. We will be updating you on the outcome of the meeting.
We have been having the negotiations since April and the Monday meeting will be our last.
The Government recently effected a 40 per cent cost-of-living salary adjustment (COAL) for civil servants which they started receiving last month.
Civil servants are also receiving a US$75 a monthly COVID-19 allowance.