THE Prime Minister on Saturday clarified that Community-based Environmental, Protection and Enhancement Company Ltd (CEPEP) workers did not get a pay cut, rather the programme has been suspended and workers will be given a grant.
In a media release on Friday, CEPEP management said they decided to temporarily cut salaries of 10,000 workers by 33.3 per cent and reduce working hours and shifts by 50 per cent, with immediate effect.
Speaking at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's at the media conference on Saturday, Dr Rowley when asked if there will be more salary cuts for other government workers said there was no salary cut but the programme has been suspended.
"It is not a cut in salary. Let us go back to where it came from, CEPEP is a make-work programme. That is not people's jobs. The more we look at it as jobs the more we get into difficulty. What has happened is that we have done is shut down the programme so they don't get their social support through the programme they now get it like a grant as other people who have lost their means."
Rowley said the workers were stopped from working to limit the number of people outside. He said when the positive numbers are reduced then the programme will restart, hopefully.
"What they are getting is not three quarters of their salary. I would have expected and I was hoping that that would have been put to you differently. It was not put to you properly. It is not a cut in salary. It is that the programme has been shut down because we don't want them out there. While the programme is shut-down, they will get a grant."
He added that this was done to avoid 10,000 working flocking to the Ministry of Social Development registering for financial support. Instead the workers will receive their grants through CEPEP as they are already on a payroll system that is manageable. He also called on the workers not to double dip and seek financial aid by going to the Ministry of Social Development.
CEPEP said in their release that the decision to cut salary was taken since it could not financially support workers as was done last year, when workers were sent home for three months.
CEPEP received an increase in subvention for 2021 along with a 15 per cent wage increase for the 2020/2021 fiscal year. Minister of Finance Colm Imbert allocated $400 million to CEPEP, approximately $25 million more than the $375.9 million allocation in 2019.
A largd segment of the public service has been at home since the outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March last year. Some of them have been working on rotation but under the latest restrictions several government services are completely unavailable but the workers continue to receive their full salaries.
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