Police officers wait for Government to set date for salary negotiation

Jefferson Drigo, the President of the Police Welfare Association (PWA) says police officers are growing "fed up and frustrated" as they wait for salary negotiations to begin.

Earlier this year, the PWA issued a proposal for a 14 percent salary increase to the government for the triennium 2012/2015 in response to Government's offer of zero percent wage increase for the period.

According to Drigo, the government acknowledged receipt of the proposal and indicated that it would set a date to begin negotiations. But to date "not a word on the matter,"

"It appears that the government is delaying the process of salary negotiations and wage matters unnecessarily…we submitted our proposal on the 20th of June 2014; the government replied to us on the 29th of July saying they are in receipt of our proposal and (will set) a suitable date for continuation of wage and salary negotiations for the triennium 2012/2015," he said.

At the time of writing the PWA was in the process meeting with its members to decide on the way forward.

"Our members are being kept abreast with the matter, we are to report to them and so, we met with them on (September 12, 2014)," Drigo stated.

"We would like to remind the government that we are still waiting patiently to continue salary and wage increases and we would like salary negotiations to commence as soon as possible…come to the table let us discuss, we have an open mind, so come for us to discuss wage and salary increases for police officers," Drigo said.