NDP accused of bonus salary ‘deception’

Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves has accused the New Democratic Party (NDP) administration of “deception” over its promise to pay public sector workers a “bonus salary”.

The former prime minister’s comments came amidst public debate over what the NDP said during the campaign for the Nov. 27 general election and what it suggested — after winning the polls — about what it might have meant.

Then-opposition leader, now prime minister, Godwin Friday first made the promises at an NDP press conference in Kingstown on Oct. 1.

He presented a pledge card with his photo on one side and the four pledges that the NDP intends to keep within 60 days of taking office.

“These are things that are real and practical,” Friday said.

“So, we are pledging to immediately make people’s lives better within 60 days of being elected. An NDP government will do the following:

“One, slash prices by cutting VAT on everyday goods and on residential electricity, your VINLEC bill; two, we will provide salary bonuses to all public servants. This is to help to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. And, three, double Poor Relief from $250 to $500. Who can make ends meet and $250?” Friday said.

The promises were repeated throughout the campaign.

Then, on Nov. 12, the NDP held a press conference at which it signed a memorandum of agreement with the Public Service Union (PSU).

“It is a document that puts the welfare and dignity of workers front and centre in our national development,” said PSU President, Elroy Boucher, who signed on behalf of the union.

During the press conference, Friday did not refer to the four promises he had made on Oct. 1, but instead focused on how an NDP government intends to interact with the public service.

“And for me, when I signed a document, it’s not aspirational… It’s my pledge and my promise that I intend to keep,” Friday said.

The reference to “aspirational” might have been a jab at Gonsalves, who said in 2010 that the election leave provision of the collective bargaining agreement that his government had signed with the Teachers’ Union in 2005 was “aspirational.

At the Nov. 12 press conference, Boucher said:

“I forgot that I had to mention to our hard-working public servants, right, that we often hear St. Kitts getting a double bubble. And they often ask, ‘What about us?’ So it’s historical. It’s going to be the first time that St. Vincent and the Grenadines public servants will ever be receiving a double bubble for Christmas.”

Boucher went on to say that Vincentian public servants could brag like those in St. Kitts and elsewhere.

“…  you can’t compare that with 3% and for those workers, especially those at the very bottom, getting $30, consider $30 versus 1000-plus dollars,” he said.

He was referring to the 3% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for three months — backdated to September — that Gonsalves announced in his Independence Address on Oct. 27 and which the Unity Labour Party administration paid in November — before the election.

“The math is really simple, so let’s get this done,” Boucher further said, echoing an NDP campaign slogan, as Friday, who was sitting beside him, began to applaud and said, “Thank you.”

The discussion about a double salary for public sector workers, payable by Christmas, became a topic of debate on social media and the radio last week.

On Dec. 10, Senator Lavern King, the junior minister of education and NDP public relations officer, attempted to manage public sector workers’ expectations, saying the NDP had promised to “give a bonus payment to all public servants.

“I understand that there seems to be a little bit of a misunderstanding, and I understand why, as well, if I’m being transparent, that the persons who are talking about a double bubble, the truth is the language and words from the party president has always been, and there will be no clip found of Dr. Friday saying a double payment.”

King said Friday had “always maintained that it would be a bonus payment on your salary.

“And I want the public to know that we have promised this in 60 days, not in the first month, be it in December. We said in 60 days, and 60 days hasn’t happened just yet.”

King went on to point out that the NDP government is delivering on Dec. 19, the first VAT-free day that it promised during the election campaign.

She further noted that the government had begun to honour the party’s promise to reinstate public sector workers fired under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate instituted by the ULP administration in November 2021.

Asked for an indication of the percentage that the NDP would pay as a salary bonus, King said she would leave that for the prime minister to say, adding that he was due to have a press conference “soon”.

The senator, however, said that the bonus “definitely isn’t” 100% of public sector workers’ salaries.

“He always said that it will be a bonus payment. And I don’t want to come and be pretentious on here and say that there aren’t clips of people who said a double pay and so forth,” King said.

“I believe that would have been election exuberance, but the party leader has always maintained that it would be a bonus payment on your salary, and it is only fair to the public that clarity is given.”

Among those who said the NDP would pay double salary was East Kingstown MP Fitz Bramble, who was elected to a second term and appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“On taking office, for Christmas, we are going to give the office attendants and all the other public servants an extra month’s salary for Christmas,” Bramble said in one of his campaign speeches.

However, after King’s comments, it became clear that the NDP had produced and possibly distributed two versions of the pledge card.

One version promised that within the first month of the NDP being in office, the party would pay, “A Bonus Salary”. The card elaborated, saying, “A double payment for all public service salaries.”

That same card promised that within one month of taking office, the NDP government would “Start hiring 100s of young people for public sector jobs”.

However, a source close to the NDP said this card should not have been printed or distributed and pointed out that the main talking point during the campaign was the party’s promises with a 60-day timeline.

A ‘big deception’ — Gonsalves

However, Gonsalves, speaking at a press conference in Kingstown on Dec. 10, said that the NDP’s “bonus salary” promise was a “big deception”.

“I was advised this morning that a member of the government was on a radio station saying that the NDP never promised a double salary in December; they promised a bonus,” the opposition leader said, referring to King’s comments.

“Well, that’s not what was said. You said explicitly on the platform a double salary for December, and you also said in your little card a bonus salary. If it was a bonus, you will say a bonus,” Gonsalves said.

He said that by saying a “bonus salary”, “bonus” is the adjective and “salary” is the noun.

“That’s plain, simple English language which any grade 5, grade 6 student knows, and the teachers should be teaching that: what is the adjective and what is the noun? The NDP promised the bonus salary — analyse and parse. Now they are saying, No, it’s a bonus.”

He said that when he had announced in the Independence Day speech on Oct. 27 a Christmas COLA for public servants, “they scoffed at it.

“They said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no; we are giving a salary. Because the Christmas COLA paid in your November salary was for three months, at 3% for three months,” he said, adding that while this amounted to 9%, people were using 10% for ease of calculation.  

“Is the average bonus, which they were now going to pay, more than the Christmas COLA? So, if you are so deceptive to people, how are you going to regain trust? So, you’re breaking the trust so early in the day?” the opposition leader said.