A letter from the:

Cayman Islands Civil Service Association
P. O. Box 30779-SMB Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

April 22nd, 2015

The Civil Service Association is well aware, as are all Civil Servants and as has been said publically, that the policies of the last decade-and-a-half of denying staff opportunities for incremental advancement within their jobs has contributed to dissatisfaction among staff and across the Civil Service which has contributed to the loss of good employees to the private sector and makes attracting new staff difficult. These restrictive policies are particularly hard on permanent, generally Caymanian, staff as contracted officers are able to negotiate their salaries when hired or re-hired while permanent staff are kept on the ‘new hire’ pay point for years, sometimes until they leave the service out of frustration.

This is an issue that the Association has raised in the past and will continue to object to, which we know persons such as the Deputy Governor have recognized internally, and we are pleased to see that others outside the Service are now beginning to recognize the negative effects of continuing these policies. Hopefully, with the reported strengthening of Government’s financial situation through the significant cuts to Civil Service operating and personnel expenses, after the Government rolls back the current multi-year pay-cut in July this year they will next turn their attention to the need to remove the no longer needed policies which have created the inequality of pay between Caymanian and expatriate staff that has worked its way in to the Civil Service in the last one to two decades.

The Association has and will continue to advocate for a proper manpower assessment across the board in the Public Service to identify the posts and skills really needed in the Public Service and the proper remuneration of those posts in order to attract and retain top quality staff, as well as identifying proper succession planning methods to allow current staff to advance their careers within the Public Service. If the public want a service to be provided the persons providing that service must be paid properly and equitably. Anything less is unfair.

Yours sincerely,

(signed)

James T. Watler, President