The government is seeking the services of a consultant to address long-standing inequalities with the wages of Montserrat’s public workers.
It has issued an invitation to tender for a qualified individual or firm with experience undertaking a similar exercise for public sector organisations in the Caribbean or other UK overseas territories.
The consultant will be responsible for evaluating the current pay structure, reviewing pay levels, improving process efficiencies, assessing job profiles and making a financial analysis.
They will report to the head of the Office of the Deputy Governor and will be responsible for the continued implementation and forward reviews of the enhanced system.
The consultancy will begin in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/25 and is expected to take nine months, with a final report and implementation plan due in June or July 2025.
The document explains that public sector employees account for more than a third of the total labour force on the island, however, there is a trend of key positions remaining unfilled for extended periods.
This is compounded by a growing dissatisfaction among employees on the known inequalities in the pay system, the invitation to tender says.
Pay concerns
Several attempts have been made to address public sector pay concerns.
These date back to June 2006 when the first job evaluation exercise was undertaken under the Public Service Reform Programme, which made several recommendations for improving pay.
Although not fully implemented, the Office of the Deputy Governor set out to build upon the recommendations of the programme in a phased and systematic way, the document says.
Fifteen years later, the office commissioned a further review of public servants salaries in November 2021.
The 2021 review identified pay disparities in the public service in Montserrat when compared to other East Caribbean Currency Unions (ECCU) member states.
There were also disparities across public and private sector organisations on the island, as well as wider regional disparities when comparing the impacts of cost of living, inflation and taxation.
“These all lend to an unattractive offer resulting in little to no interest in advertised senior management roles, even among serving officers who instead opt for early exit options,” the document says.
It added that urgent interventions are required to reverse this trend.
The invitation to tender was published on 11 November and the deadline was just two weeks later at 27 November.
