Salary grabs and who gets the shaft

Cayman News | 17/02/2021

Alric Lindsay writes: It is not unusual for salary grabs to take place close to election dates. But to blatantly do so while poor people are suffering takes things to another level. This is particularly the case during COVID-19. Specifically, I would like to point out two salary grabs, who may get left behind and who will foot the bill.

MPs Severance

Supplement No. 2 published with Legislation Gazette No. 87 dated 1st December, 2020 contains the Legislative Assembly (Management) Law, 2020. Concealed at the back are the words that “each Member of the Legislative Assembly who does not stand for re-election or, having stood for re-election, is not elected at the next election, shall be entitled to a severance payment equal to three months of the salary paid to that member… as at the date of that election”.

This is of no shock to our members of Parliament as they have now secured themselves a salary for an additional three months if they do not stand for re-election or if they stand and do not get re-elected. To illustrate, if ten MPs do not get re-elected, that could mean that we, the people, will pay $100,000 per month for three months to persons who voters decided that they no longer desire for the job. That’s $300,000 that we could have used to assist unemployed Caymanian tourism and other workers.

This is also in the midst of what is being reported as a deficit. How does one have the conscience to award oneself a salary in the height of COVID-19 and a high deficit? Well, it is easy, the people will pay for it. And it doesn’t matter that the payments could have been designed to “reimburse” losing parties for election expenses incurred during the campaign period. Maybe it is something that the Elections Boss should look into. Hmmm.

Civil service gets the shaft

If you are a civil servant looking at this and your salary falls within grades A to D, you might not even bat an eye at the MP severance pay. Why? Because, according to the Cayman Islands Extraordinary Gazette No.1/2021 published on the 6 January 2021, the top brass within the civil service, including magistrates, district commissioners, attorney general and certain heads of department received salary increases.

For example, a person with salary grade A on point 1 of the scale moved from an annual salary of $183,504 in the year 2020 to $212,796 effective in 2021. Just think about this for a second. The highest salary earners in the civil service got a bump to assist them during this difficult period, but civil servants falling within salary grades E to R (maintenance officers, nature tour guides, adult literacy facilitators and budget analysts) are stuck with the same salary. Doesn’t this seem odd to you? Why award the highest paid when the lowest paid are suffering?

Timing Is Everything

Now, it is important that you pay attention to the next couple of lines (and remember we have a deficit).

The foregoing changes took place near Christmas and New Year when most of us were not paying attention.

Elections are nearby and now, after reading this article, the government may decide to award lower salaried civil servants a percentage increase in salaries.

Pay attention.

If I am correct, a large voting block of innocent, hardworking lower-earning civil servants will think that, if they get a salary increase near election, they will have struck gold for a while. But after election, if the same political actors get in, then the ongoing deficit and fiscal common sense will dictate that something must be done to curb expenditure. Do you know who will get hit first or whose salaries will get frozen? You guessed it, the lower salaried civil servants. What a mess!

Now, if the same actors decide after election to scale back all civil service salaries because of the deficit, budget constraints, COVID-19 or “jus’ cos’ they just feel like it”, those earning salary grades A to D may simply get their January 2021 salary “increases” pushed back to their previously high salary. In this scenario, the majority of our civil service workers who are earning the lowest salaries will get the shaft.

History repeats itself

If you think this story sounds familiar, take a look at what occurred after the 2009 elections. As reported by Cayman News Service in 2010, a decision was made by government to “roll back the most recent salary increases across the board” (see here). The question you now have to ask yourself is whether you want more of the same. If not, you will know what to do on election day if the same game starts to play out.