Big money for PM, CEOs …Public backlash over salary inequities

Senior Reporter

joshua.seemungal

@guardian.co.tt

There has been significant public backlash towards the recommendation by the latest Salaries Review Commission’s (SRC) report to increase the salaries of several senior public officials, including the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader and the President.

The commission proposed a salary increase to $87,847 per month from $59,680 for the Prime Minister, but how does the PM’s current salary compare to the wages of CEOs at major state enterprises? Well, not favourably.

The average salary of the CEO’s of three well-known state companies: the Water And Sewerage Authority (WASA), Heritage Petroleum Company and the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago is 156 per cent of the Prime Minister’s current salary.

The new chief executive officer of WASA Keithroy Halliday is set to earn $100,000 a month plus perks. Heritage’s CEO Erik Keskula makes around $180,000 a month plus perks, while, as of early 2019, the TSTT’s CEO received $180,000 per month. That’s an average of $153,000 among the three.

The SRC’s proposed salary of $87,847 for the PM would still be around 43 per cent less than the average salary of those three CEOs.

The ‘latest’ data for the population’s average monthly salary comes from the Central Statistical Office’s Household Budgetary Survey (HBS) conducted in 2008 and 2009.

According to the survey, the average monthly household income in Trinidad and Tobago was $9,201. The HBS conducted a new HBS in 2023, but the results are yet to be published. The survey is supposed to be conducted at least every five years.

The Prime Minister’s current salary is 549 per cent more than the average citizen’s (based on the HBS data from 2008/2009).

If one uses a higher average citizen salary of around $11,000, the PM’s present salary would be approximately 443 per cent more, while the SRC’s proposed salary for the PM would be around 699 per cent greater.

Comparatively, the average CEO salary (based on the three state enterprises) is approximately 1,100 per cent greater than an average monthly salary of $11,000 per month. It is 1,346 per cent more than the HBS 2008/2009 average salary.

In early 2023, it was reported in WASA’s audited financial report that the state company recorded an accumulated deficit of more than $3 billion. The audited statement, ending September 2019, reported a $181 million loss.

Heritage Petroleum reported a profit after tax of $1.11 billion for the financial year ending September 30, 2022. The company reported a profit in the previous financial year of $682.7 million.

TSTT produced a profit after tax of US$19 million for the financial year ending March 31, 2024. The previous year the company reported a profit of US$14 million.

The conversation about the PM’s salary comes at a time of a high cost of living in the country, and union unrest over unsettled salary negotiations.

Several trade unions, including the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association, rejected Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s five per cent increase offer for the January 2020 to December 2022 bargaining period.

A group of public servants, including prison officers, police officers, teachers and the defence force, received a four per cent salary increase for the January 2014 to December 2019 bargaining period.

The Public Services Association (PSA) (the majority union) and the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) did not accept the Government’s offer.

In late October, scores of port workers took industrial action, protesting stalled wage negotiations, as well as health and safety concerns. The workers are represented by the Seamen and Waterfront Workers’ Trade Union. Port workers in Tobago also protested.

Meanwhile, postal workers intensified protest action over salary increases that their union, the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Workers Union, said were promised more than a decade ago. On Friday, protesters picketed the office of Minster Imbert.

If the SRC recommendation is implemented the PM’s present salary of would rise from $59,680 to $80,000 between October 2020 to September 2023, and then to $87,847 until October 2023.

The Prime Minister would be entitled to over $1 million in back pay.

The President’s salary would increase from $64,270 to $81,170.

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