Minister of Labour, Hon. Camillio Gonsalves has reiterated his call for employees in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, particularly those within the Public Sector to increase their level of productivity on the job.
In his remarks yesterday at the ceremony to launch the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Wages Councils, Minister Gonsalves alluded to a comment made by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission in their Concluding Statement following consultations here with officials from February 22 to March 3, 2016, under Article 4 of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement.
According to the IMF mission, real wages of public sector employees here have increased by 45 percent between 2000 and 2014 resulting in the second highest public sector wages (relative to productivity) in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
Minister Gonsalves said this indicates that in the Public Sector, wages have increased at a faster rate than productivity.
Minister Gonsalves said that “if we can manage to boost our productivity, we will improve our economic growth,” and added that “the spillover effects of improved productivity and greater economic growth are more jobs and even higher wages.”
