12th
March 2013
POLICE ACCEPT
Micah George
(Photo)
Royal St. Lucia Police Force on parade. (Photo
credit: Jerry George)
The Police Welfare
Association has finalized negotiations with
the Government of Saint Lucia saying that it
put country before self in arriving at its decision.
Martin James,
the Association’s President yesterday
told The VOICE that the Association received
its mandate from its general membership.
But the Association’s
decision to accept the government’s offer
rather than hold out with the other trade unions
that are still negotiating with government for
something better did not go down well with the
Trade Union Federation (TUF) of which it is
a member, and which is the one negotiating with
government on behalf of all its member trade
unions.
Julian Monrose,
the TUF’s President was not pleased with
the Police Welfare Association’s acceptance
of the government’s offer describing the
Association’s part in the negotiations
as suspect. However James shares a different
view, making it clear that his association’s
role in the current atmosphere of negotiations
with the government was to represent the interest
of constables up to the rank of inspector.
“On October
29, 2010 the government requested of the trade
unions their proposals for negotiations for
the triennium 2010 – 2013. We did just
that. At this point we have negotiated and we’ve
reached the end of the triennium, albeit but
we finalized negotiations for that period. We
have the fringe benefits and allowances that
we negotiate separately, and notwithstanding
the fact that you negotiated the salaries collectively
as one team you do not sign it in a collective
manner. Each individual union signs their collective
agreement individually,” James said in
an interview with HTS Television last week.
According to
James his association sent a balance proposal
for consideration and negotiation “and
at this point we are saying that we are indeed
pleased and it’s the mandate of the general
membership…we are indeed pleased that
we have finalized negotiations so our members
could look forward to a new salary increase
at the end of March and going forward,”
James said.
He noted that
the TUF was or should have been aware of the
position of the Association. It was the decision
of the TUF, James said, that individual trade
unions report to their respective membership
and take guidance from them. James said that
this was done and the unanimous position of
his members was made known to the TUF when the
TUF met to hear the responses from the membership
of the various unions making up the TUF.
According to
James, Monrose should have known or knew where
his association stood on the offer made by the
government because at TUF meetings his association
was always the first to make its report.
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