By Ashford Peters
President of the Public Service Union (PSU) Elroy Boucher has admitted that he pitched a salary bonus proposed by the then-opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) ahead of the Nov. 27, 2025, general election without knowing the details of the promise.
In the lead-up to the vote, the NDP announced a 60-day package of four promises to help woo voters.
“I forgot that I had to mention to our hard-working public servants that we often hear St. Kitts getting a double bubble and they often ask, ‘What about us?’ So, it’s historical,” Boucher said moments after he and then leader of the New Democratic Party, now Prime Minister Godwin Friday, signed the memorandum of agreement during a joint press conference last November.
“It’s going to be the first time that St. Vincent and these public servants will ever be receiving a double bubble for Christmas,” Boucher said, repeating, “First time.”
He continued:
“So, it is a reality and we have to also make that a reality. OK? Never happened before and we can brag like St. Kitts now and those other countries where the governments have done.”
Friday did not comment on what Boucher said but began clapping.
The NDP went on to win the election 14-1, ending the Unity Labour Party’s quarter-century stint at the helm.
However, after the election, the party said that it has promised a “salary bonus” rather than a “bonus salary”, despite a version of its pledge card saying otherwise.
During an appearance on Boom FM on Monday, Boucher responded to a question on “double salary” as reported in a newspaper headline on the eve of the elections.
He said that his “instant reaction” had been “’What is the promise being made? Is it a bonus, is it a double salary?’
“When I heard it first from the now prime minister, I asked myself: ‘What does he mean?’ Because I could not really tell clearly what it meant –whether it was a bonus or a double salary,” Boucher said.
He told radio listeners that he never actually heard Friday speak of a “double salary,” but he did hear him speak of a “bonus salary.”
Asked if he had ever seen any documentation on the promise, the union leader replied in the affirmative, saying the NDP had two information cards – one saying “bonus salary” and the other saying “double salary”.
Boucher said that during the campaign, he heard East Kingstown MP, Fitzgerald Bramble, talk about “double salary”, so he took his cue from him.
He said he later discovered that there were “two different messages”.
Asked what the reaction of the union members was, Boucher replied: “Well, they were delighted to be getting a double salary. Because I was it was a double salary also.”
Boucher said he did not negotiate the bonus promised by the NDP and that it is not part of the MOU signed between his union and the NDP.
He said that the bonus was already on the cards before the discussions on the agreement.
Boucher denied hearing about the double salary or double bubble prior to the joint press conference.
“… I heard an excerpt from the press conference that we had, when I spoke about a double salary, and compared it with what was happening in St. Kitts, or what formerly happened in St Kitts. That is the only time that I’ve spoken about that publicly,” Boucher said.
“I made that comment at that press conference because my conviction, having listened to what was said at the rallies, was that that was what was meant.”
On Friday, the prime minister, who is also minister of finance, said he had instructed the Treasury to “make those payments, ranging between $2,000 at the top and $1,000, and that they are processed by Jan. 30”.
He said that public servants — permanent and non-established — will each receive a $2,000 tax-free bonus.
Each pensioner will receive $1,500 at the end of this month.
The prime minister said daily paid workers — who make between EC$500 and EC$1,000 a month — will each receive EC$1,000.
Approximately 12,000 people would benefit from the bonus payout, the prime minister said.
“That is putting money back in people’s pockets in a big way,” he said, adding that the package would cost the treasury about EC$22 million.
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