By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 15th December 2021) — An announcement by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dr. Timothy Harris on Tuesday 14th December 2021 about a double salary has gotten specifics relating to which categories of government workers will receive the extra month’s salary as well as the payment timeline. The extra month’s salary for all civil servants and Government Auxiliary Employees (GAE) of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), including Pensioners and STEP workers, will be paid on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.
In his budget address response, Parliamentary Opposition Leader Dr. Denzil Douglas stated that workers are demanding more than the double salary. “We demand an increase in salary and wages. We welcome the double salary yes, but the people are demanding an increase in salary and wages. That is what they were hoping they would have heard yesterday,” he said. Dr. Douglas also pointed out that PM Harris’s budget address and the written document consistently referred to “civil servants” without explicitly mentioning pensioners and other categories, causing concern among those workers.
PM Harris interjected for the avoidance of doubt: “Civil servants are really part of the cadre of employees on the government payroll. Pensioners, first they are civil servants and then they go on the pensionable roll. The standard had been everywhere that every category of employment of the government are treated equally when it comes to the payment of double salary. It will be civil servants active, it will be STEP workers, it will be GAE workers, it will be pensioners because they’re part of the payroll of the government.”
In response, Dr. Douglas expressed: “We are now having what appears to be a clarification but the reason why one had to make sure that it is clear is because if you wanted it to be clear, you would have written it; you will utter it. You know how many pensioners went home and went to their beds last night almost in despair? Whenever I paid a double salary it was clearly stated public servants and pensioners — always!”