ST. GEORGE GRENADA, THURSDAY 30TH NOVEMBER, 2017, GIS: Public servants in Grenada could take home a bigger pay package than normal for Christmas, if the nation’s trade unions would allow it, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has suggested.

If the unions, Public Workers Union and the Technical and Allied Workers Union, agree to Government offer for the second one-off payment, then workers will receive their payment in their December salary, Prime Minister Mitchell said on Monday.

The Unions had previously rejected the additional sum of $650 in one-off payments.

“We are prepared to include in the December salaries of public servants, the additional one-off payments to public servants assuming that the unions would accept our offer now, now now,” said Dr. Mitchell, also the country’s Finance Minister, during the 2018 Budget Presentation in Parliament.

“This will bring for Christmas as Santa Claus comes, additional money to public servants, teachers and all concerned. I await my brothers and my sister’s guidance in the trade union movement and I know they have a lot of guidance to give”.

In an attempt to reach a settlement and to ensure that there is no breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Government had reconsidered its offer, by re-prioritizing its expenditure.

This included reducing the sum it had originally allocated for the regularization of temporary workers in the service, and adjusting its one-off offer upwards to $700 across the board or $750 for workers in the system who have worked for more than three years and $650 for those who have worked for less than three years.