Public sector workers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will receive a 3% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for three months, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced in his Independence Address on Monday.
“A Christmas COLA will also be paid to all public servants, nurses, teachers, police officers, prison officers and non-established employees in the central government as a one-off payment tax-free, of 3% of the person’s salaries or wages for three months,” Gonsalves announced as he addressed the military parade at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex to mark 46 years of independence from Britain.
The announcements — 14 in all — come one day before he is widely expected to announce the date for the next general election, which pundits say he is likely to do during a rally of his Unity Labour Party in Kingstown on Tuesday.
The payment will be made by the end of November 2025, Gonsalves said, further feeding speculation that Vincentians will go to the polls by next month, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
The main opposition New Democratic Party announced on Oct. 1 that if elected to office, it will pay public sector workers a salary bonus within 60 days of coming to office.
The Christmas COLA to public sector workers will cost the Treasury EC$3 million, Gonsalves said, adding that in January, the government will engage public sector unions on salary-related negotiations for three years, to be included in the 2026 Budget.
Gonsalves also announced that 2,704 people who had been assessed to be in severe need and who were paid a COLA of $175 monthly for three months earlier this year will be paid a Christmas COLA of another three months from October to December this year.
“This Christmas cola will be paid by the end of November 2025. This will cost the Treasury $1.4 million,” he said.
He said the Christmas COLA is better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola.
“This one, you can call it Ralph COLA,” the prime minister said, adding that it “wouldn’t give you diabetes”.
The prime minister also said that his Cabinet decided two months ago that the 234 teachers and 159 public servants who are university graduates and who submitted proof of their degree qualifications by September 2025, but are yet to be appointed at the appropriate graduate salary scale, will be appointed as graduates, effective Nov. 1.
“The officials are finalising all the administrative details in this regard,” he said, adding that he expects that the payment will be in pay packets by mid-December, if not before.
“This will increase the central government’s salary bill,” he said, adding that for the remainder of this year, it will cost the Treasury EC$1.25 million.
He said teachers and public servants who submitted their degree qualifications after Sept. 30 will be appointed from January 2026.
“The appointments of the graduates will be in grades F and E, as applicable. And when we appoint those, there will be spaces for resulting vacancies from the graduate appointments.”
The prime minister said the government will have, in addition to the existing posts, 30 additional posts of Teacher II and 46 posts for Teacher III.
“And they will be put in place to accommodate the promotion from those coming from teacher I,” the prime minister said, adding that there will be a rising tide for everybody.
“As regards the public servants, specifically, those currently receiving the graduate allowance are to be appointed to the post of administrative officer I and II in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet in September 2025.”
He said that in respect of police officers, nurses, and nursing assistants, the payment of graduate allowance will continue.
“In order to enhance the salaries of these categories of employees, a formal review of their salaries and allowances will be conducted beyond any negotiated increase between the government and the public sector unions for the three-year period, 2026 to 2028 inclusive.”
Gonsalves said the police officers, nurses and nursing assistants have peculiar chain of command issues to be accommodated in the application of graduate appointments.
“This, in part, demands a formal review. The education revolution has thrown up some fascinating anomalies, particularly among these categories of professionals.”
He said that regarding the computation of graduate allowances for public servants and teachers, there will be an immediate upward revision that will allow each university graduate to receive the equivalent of at least one full increment in the grade G scale up to the maximum of the set grade.
“This also is to take effect from the first of November 2025,” the prime minister said, adding that he expects this increase will be in the pay package of the relevant public servants and teachers by mid-December 2025.
“These massive immediate realignments, alignments, reforms, appointments and enhancement of graduate allowances will, in total, cost the Treasury $6 million for the remaining three months of 2025.
“This is how a serious government goes about its business with substance, not ill-conceived gimmicks of those who have absolutely no clue about governance.”
The prime minister said that an assessment by the Ministry of National Mobilisation showed that 660 deserving people did not receive EC$660 a month for eight months, as 5,000 others had done.
He said these 660 people will receive the money in a lump sum of EC$4,800.
“This will cost the Treasury $3.2 million and this sum has already been budgeted for these monies are expected to be in these persons’ individual bank cards by the end of November 2025,” Gonsalves said.
He said that any others who are inadvertently missed by the ministry’s officials will continue to be sorted out on an ongoing basis.
He further said that his government has rebuilt or repaired 5,000 houses damaged by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2025.
However, another 2,000 or so are left to be “satisfactorily addressed”, Gonsalves said.
He said that although the government had provided more than EC$2.5 million in fridges, stoves and washing machines to people affected by the cyclone, there was a waiting list of 2,500 persons to be helped in this regard.
“Every affected person or family in this country knows that so long as I am prime minister, all these and other reasonable demands will be met,” he said.
“My government does what no other government in the world does or has done in these respects. When there’s a natural disaster, we come to the people’s aid fully, extraordinarily, in rebuilding and repairing affected houses, doing all that for free, rolling out the delivery of appliances and providing a social safety net for the households.”
When I retire as a police officer or nurse, the graduates allowance I receive will have no effect on my pension. For a promotion, I have to beg, which puts me completely at their mercy. Prime Minister, you have done nothing for police officers and nurses, and I believe that is by design. Happy Independence to you.
A double salary is much better than 3% of your current salary. Poor fella. Go home.
Good Mr PM but Vincentians hopefully won’t fall for your tactics this time around.
I was told that the Vincies in the diaspora, there are several millioraires. One man told me 1 in every 10 vincies in New York is a multimillionaire. Lots of these Vincies support the NDP.
I’m addressint the many Vincentian milluonaires in NY who support Dr Friday to come up wirh at least 100 million ECD to help with building factories that could process our agricultural products etc.Invest in our people so that the likes our tipresent PM never have a chance of governing again. Please contribute at least USD500000 each..It’s a tax write off and yoi rich vinces in the diaspora should be glad for an opportunity such as this.
Thanks
Vines
JUST RING THE BELL 🔔
I am a double degree holder and employed as a public servant for over 15 years at the same salary scale. I was paying $600+ in licensing for a vehicle. Today it is $1000+ for the same size engine. This is only on one compulsory expenditure. Yet, the PM slapped us in the face with a 3% bonus! That is the saltiest Cola every…He needs to keep that!!
He speaks as though he is the only person with ideas how to run this country. He uses condescending terms to describe the opposition, deriding them on every public opportunity, while at the same time desiring a contest free of contempt for the other side, but his acrid language has not changed….. hypocrisy described!