BARBADOS – There will be no job cuts in the public service, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has promised.
Local reports say she is offering instead the prospect of forced savings of part of earnings as the economy claws its way out of both a pandemic and economic restructuring.
According to Barbados Today, forced savings is the involuntary savings of an individual resulting from restrictions imposed upon spending, deferred income, insurance or other circumstances.
The publication reports that the last time the Barbados Government attempted to withhold the pay of public officers, an eight per cent cut was instituted in 1991, which was credited with the saving the dollar.
But although the withheld money was later repaid, the then Owen Arthur administration amended the Constitution to outlaw a future pay cut.
In this case, Mottley said some of the salaries of public workers would be invested in bonds which would be redeemed at a later date.
But she said a final decision would be made in the coming weeks after further discussions with the Social Partnership.
