President of the Police Service and Social Welfare Association Insp Anand Ramesar says there has been headway regarding salary negotiations with the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). Members of the association met CPO Stephanie Lewis for close to six hours at her Port-of-Spain office on Tuesday and Ramesar described the talks as “very promising.” He also commended Lewis for what he described as opening the door for improved wage talks.
“There has been some progress. The relationship between the association and the Chief Personnel Officer has improved. We are at the current juncture where the CPO has opened the door to negotiate for a higher wage increase,” Ramesar said. He added that the membership was anxiously waiting on a definite commitment from the CPO. Saying the hard work and dedication of police officers must not go unnoticed, Ramesar said: “The rally and the support of the membership need to continue around the association as we move forward.”
On when negotiations are expected to end, Ramesar said there was no timeframe. “We will not put a timeline on it because we will not be pressured in accepting within a limited timeframe. We will continue to struggle hard as long as we are not satisfied that what we are not getting is a fair share of the pie. The movement coming from the CPO is closer to where we want to go,” he said.
In an update posted on the association’s website yesterday, it said the CPO had revised her position from 60 per cent of the market score of 16.4 to 70 per cent of the said market score of 16.4. “Following the mandate of the membership, the executive rejected that position and pressed throughout the evening by way of arguments for an increased offer. The current position is that the CPO has agreed to consider increasing the offer of 70 per cent of the market score of 16.4.
“To summarise the progress, it means that we have moved from an offer of about nine per cent to an offer of about 12 per cent. The coming discussions will see the offer of 12 per cent increased,” the statement said. It added, however, that the struggle was far from over and urged officers to continue to demonstrate support. “Though there are several persons who are not minded to rally with us, the fact remains that all will benefit from a successful outcome,” the statement said.
The CPO had offered a ten per cent increase and had removed the Airports Authority from the comparative institutions, effectively reducing the combined average increase to 16.4 per cent. Ramesar said if the association accepted the 16 per cent market score, it would be much lower than what police would be entitled to.