‘Cannot Guarantee Reductions Without Layoffs’
“We cannot guarantee that the planned reduction in spending can be achieved without layoffs of workers in the public sector for the coming fiscal year,” Finance Minister Bob Richards said during the 2015 Budget speech in the House of Assembly today [Feb 20].
Minister Richards said, “Personnel costs are crippling the Bermuda Government’s ability to restore its fiscal balance and, by any reasonable standard, are excessive and certainly unsustainable.”
The Minister added that none of the unemployed people have been made redundant from the public service, as “all of Bermuda’s unemployed are from the private sector.”
“The question of whether or not that is fair is an open one,” added Minister Richards. “Public sector workers have fared much better than their private sector counterparts during this recession.”
This morning’s budget also saw the Minister reveal that Airport Departure Tax, Duty on fuel, Payroll tax and the Corporate Service Tax Rate will all be raised, while payroll concessions in place for the hospitality, restaurant and retail sectors will be partially rolled back in 2014/15 with businesses in these sectors paying rate of 5.5%.
An extract of the Minister’s Budget speech is below, and you can read his full speech here.
When this Government was elected, few fully appreciated how traumatic cutting the cost of Government would really be. A plan of cuts of 7%, 5% and 3% looks easy enough on paper but in reality it is quite difficult. The events of January 2015 are a testament to that difficulty. It is why the Government is enacting new rules to enforce fiscal discipline in the future.
As Government is in the business of providing the public with services of various types, cutting services will affect the employees who provide them. People who work in the public sector have arranged their living standards and, in fact, their lives based on certain assumptions about income, health benefits, retirement benefits, etc.
One can expect that any abrupt change to those assumptions and routines would be unwelcome or viewed with anxiety or suspicion. It is only human nature. Such change will never come easy, but the unsustainable position of government finances is an overarching reality that must be rectified now by us, or it will be imposed on us by an external power, and that would be calamitous for Bermuda.
When the Premier and I were on a TV talk show recently, I was struck by a telephone caller’s question about the public service being “bloated,” and the image it raised of swollen excess. Figure 9 puts this phenomenon in the economic context. The argument has been made that the public sector has had to grow as the economy grew. Figure 9 demonstrates that public sector employment costs roughly paralleled the growth of the economy until 2004.
But thereafter, employment costs rose faster than the economy and, after 2007, when the economy began to falter, employment costs kept rising. That increasing gap is an illustration of the “bloating” of the public service. Personnel costs are crippling the Bermuda Government’s ability to restore its fiscal balance and, by any reasonable standard, are excessive and certainly unsustainable.
Mr. Speaker, Government understands and regrets the trauma associated with cost cutting and we are endeavouring to enact these adjustments in ways that minimize the negative fallout for public servants. The furlough arrangement that expires on March 31 was an example of minimizing negative fallout. Government was committed to cutting spending by 7% for the fiscal year 2014/15.
The furlough was an important component in helping to reach that goal. No one likes the furlough — it is a pain in the neck for everyone — but it enabled the Government to minimize the negative impact on public service employees by avoiding redundancies. Bermudians by and large are very familiar with redundancies.
Regardless of the debate over unemployment figures, one thing is undisputed and that is there are far too many of our citizens seeking work but unable to find it.
The approximately 3,000 unemployed people do not include non-Bermudians made redundant and returning home, nor does it include Bermudians who have given up on Bermuda and moved abroad seeking greener pastures.
But there’s one thing all these people have in common, and it is that none of them have been made redundant from the public service. None! All of Bermuda’s unemployed are from the private sector. The question of whether or not that is fair is an open one.
In addition to being let go, many private sector workers have been placed on reduced hours or reduced days — another name for a furlough. And we are not talking about just blue-collar workers, we are also referring to people formerly employed in financial services, retail and exempted companies.
Mr. Speaker, public sector workers have fared much better than their private sector counterparts during this recession. Therefore, the idea that Government, by initially agreeing to and then seeking to continue furlough days for a further period, is trying to place all the burden of the Island’s financial problems on its employees is well wide of the mark.
Two years ago, the unions and Government agreed that one furlough day per month would preserve public sector jobs. It was true then and it is true now.
The financial stresses behind that decision have not abated. Government has gone more than the extra mile to consult with the union leadership, seeking mutually agreed solutions to government’s financial difficulties.
Their participation in the budgeting process has been literally unprecedented. The union leadership has now changed its mind on the furlough; so be it. The arrangement is voluntary so it cannot be forced.
The Government appreciates their cooperation in the two-year MOU that ends next month, and we presume their change of stance is in the interests of their members. However, the Government’s responsibilities include the whole of Bermuda: private sector business, private sector workers, public sector workers, charities, children, students and seniors.
The risks posed by the deficit and the public debt threaten the welfare of all sectors and all people in this island and everyone should be prepared to do their part to be part of the solution.
Mr. Speaker, the notion that fixes can be found which are painless or without inconvenience to the public are just not realistic. At this stage, there are no easy choices, just tough ones, and they are choices that must be made. So in an effort to meet our targets, there are a number of adjustments that have been made to this budget that we may not have taken if the furlough had been renewed.
These include:
- Placing a cap on Financial Assistance thereby reducing the allocation by $5 million.
- Cutting costs by $1 million through school consolidations.
- Cutting the Government’s travel budget by $1million.
- Amending the GEHI employee premium contribution for unemployed spouses enrolled in the plan, thereby cutting costs by $1.6 million.
- Suspending the Agricultural Exhibition for one year, resulting in $0.4 million cost savings.
- Suspending a portion of Government’s matching contribution to the Public Service Superannuation Fund (PSSF)
- Curtailing certain services to the public, which may have an effect on staffing levels.
- Eliminating funded vacant public sector posts.
- Implementing a hiring freeze that will include the freezing of all vacant posts, with only statutory and/or necessary posts being filled.
- Implementing a new centralized hiring structure whereby all new hiring will require prior approval from both the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Finance.
- Extending the early retirement eligibility plan to employees aged 55 years.
- Requiring Uniformed Officers to pay 50% of their GEHI health insurance premiums, consistent with other public officers, saving $2.9 million.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear from these budgeted expenditure figures that Government, despite the adjustments already mentioned, has not been able to meet the expenditure target as required by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
Spending is budgeted to be reduced by 3.5% while the MTEF calls for 5%. A renewal of the furlough would have enabled us to meet that target and continue our no redundancy pledge. This is unfortunate and undermines the credibility of this Government pertaining to public commitments on cost reductions. This will not play well with the rating agencies and our creditors.
We will endeavour to make further savings not included in this Budget. There are items that cannot be budgeted for, like the effects of moving the early retirement age from 60 years to 55. We just don’t know how many public officers will avail themselves of this offer, but this further tightening of monitoring and spending control by the Ministry of Finance will result in some progress.
Lay off the BTA CEO 1st, because he isn’t doing a damn thing.
Then lay off Bob Richards for allocating $77 million dollars towards America’s Cup and trying to initiate a new airport being built during the hardest times that Bermuda has ever faced.
When your plp lies and irrelevance is needed we will ask you for it!!! That $77 million figure your plp came up with has been proven to be FALSE!!!! Just another lie from your plp!! You also sound nervous at the fact that lay offs may come to the CS, you wouldn’t happen to be a CS would you??? May I ask how you know the BTA chief is doing nothing??? More falsehoods from you would be closer to the truth!!!!
Well here’s a possibility. Bermuda wanted the event so badly that, according to Minister of Economic Development Grant Gibbons, it put together a $77 million package for Ellison’s Cup. That includes a $15 million fee to the event authority, $25 million to cover any sponsor shortfall and $25 million to prepare and maintain an America’s Cup village.
I’m so sorry Kangocar , this paragraph was gleaned from a very respectable foreign online newspaper out of San Francisco and with Bernews permission I could paste the whole . TARA !
It’s the wrong number. Like there weren’t 6,000 PRCs applying for status. And there weren’t 100 buyers lined up for Grand Atlantic condos. ThevPLP can’t understand numbers, yet it throws them around.
I didn’t think you respected anything foreign.
Just out of curiosity, where do you think they got their information?
When my friends father reduced his Bermudian employees at his construction business he was told by Immigration that he had to lay off the workpermit employees first. I hope the same rules apply with the OBA Government!
Who in OBA is working on a workpermit?
Time shall tell,
time has told all who read that you cannot read!
LEARN TO READ!
Nice going oba now all the work permit holders in government are shaking in their boots.
Then what’s next spouses of Bermudians who work for government?
No. Fire people based on job performance. No other criteria should matter.
Sorry but I just spoke to someone who works at the Department of Immigration. Under the Immigration rules the business is suppose to lay off the work permit contracts first. It doesn’t matter if the work permit time has not expired. The only one who can change the policy is the Minister of Immigration and that wouldn’t be a smart move for him to make, because in the end work permit holders can’t vote in a general election to keep his party in power!!
Dam if you do dam if you don’t!!
@Creamy
How do i know these thing be cause i have been there.
Are you suggesting they fire from the top or the bottom or some where in between or right across the board.
There must be a justifiable reason.
Firing people because the business or the country needs to save money is wrong.
Every one is working at their level of incompetence, because no body is perfect we all make mistakes we all regret our poor decisions at one time or another, the problem arises when some body makes a mistake which they can not rectify.
Good evening.
Judge not for you shall be judged.
Keep the people you need and who do a good job. Downsize people you don’t need, or who don’t do a good job. That’s the fairest way to do it, both to the employees and to the taxpayer.
It’s not a novel idea.
you cant do that…if the work permit/CONTRACT has not finished.
Say good bye to the local wastes of space first
Local waste of space. Are you serious, you forget it is a privilege to be in our country. You should be ashamed of yourself, I am sure were you come they do not treat there local population like they are trash. Think before you speak you degenerate.
It is amazing you foreigners make all these flagrant remarks on blogs with your identity hidden, you would never say anything like this in public because you would be deported.
I think you’ll find there are unmotivated workers in Bermuda, just as there are unmotivated in every country.
To pretend there is not is to be in denial.
It is possible to say it is a priviledge to work in Bermuda, but it is also possible to say Bermuda is priviledged to have some of the skillsets that don’t exist in Bermuda brought here by foreign workers.
To say only one side is wrong. You need to see the balance.
My physics teacher (who was from Jolly Old England) used to say that the only requirement for being considered an “expert” in Bermuda was to be from more than 600 miles away.
Some of us are eternally, habitually convinced that we don’t have the wherewithal to run our own country properly.
Allow me to be the first to say that it is our privilege to have “some of the skillsets that don’t exist in Bermuda brought here by foreign workers”… even if it just to cook a really good burger.
So why aren’t ALL the accountants or actuaries or underwriters or lawyers in Bermuda Bermudian???
We have had generations to grow the ability.
That’s a good question….
while you seek the answer for that…..
I would like to know why all the hairdressers, nail techs, doctors, nurses, chefs, wait service, teachers, police officers and COMPLAINERS in Bermuda are not all Bermudian……
Because there are few qualified Bermudians willing to do the job? Stop whining like spoilt, sheltered children. If you want international business get out there and get the qualifications and experience. Or ask the foreign experiences to leave…and take their money and business with them.
@hmmm
BECAUSE after we contribute to the high cost of living,for food, fuel, rents, mortgage,and Bermuda’s biggest charity, there is not enough money in the cookie jar to educate the children, then again to have a high paying job you do not have to sit behind a desk playing computer games.
don’t forget, those flipping burgers and such are also flipping us the bird as they take $150,million dollars a year out of the country!!!! a cap on that would save half of the departments Bob is trying to cut back on!!!!!!!oh but of course one wants to argue thaat ITS THIER MONEY!!!wel BErmuda wake up coz that is where our precious $$$have been disappearing also!!!
So the people flippin burgers are sending $150m a year out of the country?
Did Zane come up with these numbers? Or was it Burt?
The s*** some people talk. Utter stupid nonsense.
*Some of us are eternally, habitually convinced that we don’t have the wherewithal to run our own country properly.*
And for those that harbor that belief 14 years of PLP government proved them right .
And 4 to 5 years of the OBA may continue to prove them right….imagine that
How do you know the poster is a foreigner ? Are locals unable to have an opinion like that ?
Are locals not allowed/unable to say unpleasant things about their own island ?
“How do you know the poster is a foreigner ?”
-I don’t know
“Are locals unable to have an opinion like that ?”
-Absolutely
“Are locals not allowed/unable to say unpleasant things about their own island ?”
-They do it all the time
They can do it, so you best pack your bags and start looking for another job in your own country.
When Burt Construction closed down in 2011 did it make Bermudians unemployed?
Manipulating the voting numbers won’t make you right.
Neutral,—-
your perspective on matters is astounding. BTA will drive the new growth in Tourism, which is imperative for jobs for everybody from construction through to hotel management etc. The CEO is a very experienced Tourism industry veteran, which we have not had before, and now that ministers cant get involved we might actually get some success. Second, without our commitment to AC , our tourism sector would have a much harder time getting started. Thank god for AC, and all the new investment in the industry that has begun and about to begin.
Throwing stones and trying to break windows has never been a way to succeed in life.
government has already laid of people in civil service way before this budget came out.. Those persons should come forward but maybe are afraid to.. THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALREADY LAID OFF CIVIL SERVICE WORKERS!!!SINCE A YEAR OR ASO AGO!..BOB is being disengenious when he says not one public sectore person has been laid off..
And now they’re being offered an early retirement package at age 55 when they get to sit off with a nice fat pension.
When do you think you’ll be able to retire?
I guess those in the gov employees wished they could retain the furlough day but nope, you all wanted to be greedy and wanted everything and now some people will loose their jobs.
Sorry to say, but you all dug your own hole and I bet all gov workers are now worrying that you don’t get that notice.
Sorry but many gov workers have had to too good for far too long.
Can individuals agree to a furlough? If so, make their jobs safe. Watch how fast others sign up.
What, in addition to the 14 weeks sick and 6 weeks vacation?
I know. But it would be an interesting exercise don’t you think?
It’s can also be called job sharing. But how do you by-pass the Unions?
Did it ever occur to you that there are many who work for the government who can’t wait to see the leadership start to trim the fat?
When they start to make the cuts they will have to begin at the TOP….some of them are almost completely useless….
That in turn would reduce the million steps it takes to get something done AND
you won’t have any more reason to complain about over paid, underworked, lazy, government employees.
The fear of losing a job seems to be a great motivator in the private sector I don’t see why it shouldn’t work in the public sector……right?
Start with the PS of Public Works – waste of space and everyone knows it.
The CS is the BIGGEST Burden to Bermuda and it needs to be pruned!
Need a bigger tool than a pruner. A chainsaw would be more like it. Start with the stuff up high that created the monster pepper tree.
This could be a easier fix. than once thought. Based on previous statistical reports it appears that approximately 20% of the CS workforce are nin-Bermudian. Start the culling there and the GOB could reduce it’s expenses by up to $70+ million a year.
How many of the Permanent Secretarys, Directors, Assistant directors & such are non Bermudian? A whole mess of seat warmers at that level. A whole mess of seat warmers at the bottom too.
You want to see how many Bermudians are seat warmers at that level. I’m convinced they are working against the OBA, nothing else would explain just how inept they are.
lol. But then nothing would get done! Expats are here because Bermudians don’t have the skills. That’s not derogatory, it’s a fact. My job has been advertised 4 times, as per law, and each time no-one, not one person, has applied. So now you want to kick me out? By all means kick out the expats, but then don’t start complaining when everything goes belly up because no-one knows how to do the job.
Not only that, but get rid of the expats and you lose a whole sector of the economy.
I’m an expat. If I leave, who is going to pay my landlord’s mortgage? What are the shopkeepers, restaurants etc going to do when a family of four leaves, and takes their expenditure with them? Shops close, restaurants close and so on and so on. You’ve already seen it when exempt companies began to move away, and now you want to make that worse? You NEED expats, pure and simple.
@expat, totally agree but please remember that trying to explain things to the plp zenophobes is a complete waste of time!!! They have been brainwashed by their plp and now can’t even see the fact that their plp chased 5000 expats out of here and now they themselves have no jobs and they still can’t see it??? You can’t fix stupid!!! And I am 100% Bermudian !!!
Hey Bob Under The Hood aka BUTH , please make a believer out of me , fulfill your election promise in creating 2000 jobs in three years . I understand why your Cabinet abandoned the promise of the referendum , I’ve come to terms in which the way Fayhe went back on the OBAs word on term limits . The whole controversy over status by stealth , I can now chuckle at the words of Glen Smith when he said that the OBA makes no apologies for severe contradictions over important issues . Even how the OBA is serious about issuing identification cards for foreign workers , something that they as a body were dead set against just a few years ago . The Hamilton Waterfront is now in litigation for what ? There were plenty of jobs planned for that project . The OBA was voted in to produce so much more . Instead the OBA will once again go for the low hanging fruit and cut government jobs without the expectation for the jobless to regain employment in the private sector .
The OBA once again showing that they care for only a very specific demographic of this piece of Paradise . It is not about black or white , it is about the Trinity of the UBP/OBA & the Noveaux Riche ! After all the last administration did to consolidate all government departments under one roof , here comes the OBA spreading its interest through out Hamilton into the buildings owned by various friends and family , making sure that any wealth lost through the bad investments of the past few years will be recovered by purchase orders issued by the Accountant General of Bermuda . So you see it’s not the lowly paid civil servant who is raping the coffers , it’s the $20,000 to $40,000.00 per month rents that consumes a huge percentage of government expenditure . And be reminded that while the rents may have been properly negotiated , none of the landlords agreed to a furlough day !
So I ask , where are the Promised Jobs , Make a Believer out of Me !
As a afterthought , maybe that was Craig Cannonier’s dream . So I’ll ask another question , Was the Baby thrown out with the bath water ?
Pat yourself on the back Coffeeeeeeeee, you and yours did this to the Country and you know it. Oh and let us know what pension Brown and Cox are getting will you before you through more toys out of your crib !!!!!!
You are exactly what is wrong with the blogs world wide, people can just get on and say what ever they want, it makes no difference if it is truth or lies??? You are the latter!!!!!
Just the facts Kangooo , just the facts !
Taxpayers dollars taken home by OBA MPs over the last 26 months
• Michael Dunkley $394,000
• Bob Richards $383,000
• Trevor Moniz $ 373,000
• Craig Cannonier $ 351,000
• Wayne Scott $338,000
• Patricia Gordon Pamplin $229,000
• Shawn Crockwell $338,000
• Dr Grant Gibbons$229,000
• Leah Scott $182,000
• Sylvan Richards $182,000
• Michael Fahy $173,000
In all of the budget and shared sacrifice talk as of late there has been no mention of OBA Ministers taking a cut in pay. So how seriously can anyone of us take them.
Taxpayer dollars taken by public employee fake sick days – over $10,000,000 a year. Every year. Paid for by the rest of us.
Put up the numbers of the plp over their reign of terror Famous! Then maybe people will read your garbage!
At least those figures are public and transparent.
How much is my Union President collecting? My dues went up by 17% and I want to know.
Trying to mislead people again mr ” not so ” famous ??? I like how you post their salaries for the entire time they have been the government??? I do realize it will actually fool your supporters, which was your intent!!! Honest people ( which you are proving not to be ) would state annual salary!!! Funny how you never mention your plp GIVING themselves raises when people were starting to lose their jobs because of the plp incompetence and it was the OBA that took a 10% pay cut when they took office!!!!
Wheres Chris Furbert?
I agree they should take a 5 % cut, but as usual you forgot the shadow’s pay (PLP) they also should take a 5% deduction…. No to be fair, they were in charge when we went into debt and really their work in opposition isn’t as difficult as in Government so they should take a 7.5% cut. This will save us some money and be of example to the people that they are willing to sacrifice.
Now go back and do the plp for the same time frame..
Those are all pretty low for over 2 years.
Who tabled those salary increases in the house?
Minister Richards you are of course 10000000 % correct that thundreds of people employed in the private sector have lost jobs since 2008 (to present). Three of the absolute WORST culprits have been the banks..ie Butterfield, HSBC, Gibbons / Clarion. They threw so many highly skilled Bermudians out the door it is sickening. Why? Because the top Execs were simply ‘reducing costs’ so that they could put more money in their own pockets. None of the banks here are actually Bermudians any more, they are ALL foreign owned and couldnt care less about Bermuda or Bermuda jobs! Please open up the banking sector to a much wider array of international banks so that the monopolies are broken and more jobs in the finance sector are available. All the current banks are interested in doing is charging exhorbitant fees for no good reason, not lending for those that want to purchase or refurbish, keeping their rates rock bottom but charging three times more than Libor IF they lend you a few bucks and cornering every other part of the market as they deem fit. You know from the inside out Minister Richards. Please do open the banking market to stop these misguided banks from doing further damage.
I agree with you on introducing some competition, however, it’s not the job of private enterprise to be caring or to employ as any people as possible. If these Companies have reduced staffing levels and can continue to run efficiently, that says to me that they made good business decisions.
The difference is these banks are businesses accountable to their shareholders who expect the company to be run in a competent, efficient & profitable manner.
Senior civil servants, who run day to day Government operations, are accountable to no one. They are all part of the same union & treat their budgets like some sort of financial playground making sure that they spend every last penny each year so that they can demand more the next year.
To fluff up their self importance they will hire as many as possible, needed or not.
If the Minister holds to his word freezing future CS employs & the way they are done some of these highly pay civil servants can be shown the door or demoted.
most telling that all job losses have been in the private sector….during the depression of 2008-2015 Government spending for civil servants grew….instead of cutting the lowest paid limit family earnings of civil servants no spouses each earning over $200,000 and reduce Cabinet and salaries of Politicians….p.s. what genius came up with no ag show in 2014?
The Minister said “People who work in the public sector have arranged their living standards and, in fact, their lives based on certain assumptions about income, health benefits, retirement benefits, etc.”
So have people in the private sector, only to have those standards destroyed by unemployment. Those are the jobs that pay the taxes to support public sector employees in having secure benefits unheard of in the private sector, especially defined benefit pensions. Time for the public sector expenses to be reduced significantly. Not just a hiring freeze but also a promotion freeze as that is the way round a hiring freeze. Hundreds of admin positions have to be eliminated and departments privatized, and soon, so Bermuda as a whole can survive.
Because the members of the union refused to take furlough days and have a small reduction in pay, now the people who really need help that have no jobs at all have just recieved a $5 million reduction in financial assistance. Those that have, have now taken from those who have not, be proud of yourselves BIU.
Basically the union and government workers have attacked the poor !!!!!!!!!!!
It was their suggestion for this saving.
If it wasn’t so real and frightening – it might be quite amusing or as the Germans would say ‘Schadenfreude’! CF would you please enlighten us as to how much the PLP ministers took home during the 26 month period from 2009 -2012? No? I guess not because that would be pointless at this juncture.
Poor little Bermuda only now waking up to the fact that what we have is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. The fact that soon that will be approx 50% of what it was 10 years ago is proving a little hard to shove down the throat.
Shall we play ‘remember when’ – oh yes those were the days – 2002 – hey Mr. Expat Exec how you like us now while you sit in your $15K a month mediocre cottage and listen to the ‘Sven & Johnny Show’ instruct you on how we’d like you to empty your wallet a little faster please! No doubt the wheels were already turning in how to move any portable dept as far away as possible.
Counter cyclical! Says the wide eyed and smug Mr. Burt with his Ray Charles vision. And what exactly was the new Berkley & Dame LBE building? Gotta love economists (even the amateurs) they seem to be correct only when looking backwards.
Lets not be too hard on the former govt. Even the high and mighty were frantically constructing new and bigger offices and homes for rent whilst somehow blind to the unusual new trend of higher exports emanating from our freight forwarding firms. Go figure!
Oh and about the banks Dee Richardson. They’re only playing the ‘we cater to the higher class tier of renters’ game and we’re all familiar with that here in our beautiful little ‘nother world, 700 miles at a sea an all that!
Not only are you accurate but eloquent too.
Great thought–perhaps the public sector will begin to share some more of the burden—-the private sector hasn’t been protesting in the streets–the private sector has been trying to help figure out ways to generate business and revenue to assist the Government.
Would those in the public sector kindly and honestly talk about what they are doing to contribute versus demanding more!!!
The public sector is a cost center–think about it in relation to running an effective business–when the revenue prodcution side of a business slows–cost centers must be adjusted accordingly.
Thus, insted of trying to talk our way into belieivg this is not a shared issue for everyone in this country -let’s get to work and help this government dig us out of this hole before its too late!!!
Minister Richards stated: “Mr. Speaker, I would like to give special thanks to the staff of the Ministry of Finance who, this year, have had to prepare this budget under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, in view of the uncertainties that prevailed up until just a few
weeks ago. The fact that this budget has been presented on time is a tribute to their dedication and hard work.”
Note the last 4 words: ‘dedication and hard work’. Now last I checked 100% of the MOFHQ staff are Bermudian. Yes these same people he claimed had dedication and worked hard are indeed civil servants who perform this same dedication of duties and hard work throughout the year. Year after year in fact. So tell me, according to the hatred about ‘lazy’ ‘good for nothing’ ‘incompetent’ ‘don’t know anything’ civil servants on these blogs is the Minister lying? Or are we now going to disingenuously select, deli style which civil servants are ‘worthy’ of praise and acknowledgement after his statement? Do hard working civil servants exist in only the Ministry of Finance I wonder? Maybe if other Ministers also publicly showed gratitude to their staff for hard work which is all too often taken for granted by the public, this can stop if not reduce all of this divisive hatred many have, especially OBA supporters, towards public servants working for their country. The Minister would not be able to produce his Budget Speech without the assistance of civil servants who I am 100% sure accomplished this working very long hours, not just 9 to 5. But this happens every year. Stop all of this hatred.
Neutral,—-
your perspective on matters is astounding. BTA will drive the new growth in Tourism, which is imperative for jobs for everybody from construction through to hotel management etc. The CEO is a very experienced Tourism industry veteran, which we have not had before, and now that ministers cant get involved we might actually get some success. Second, without our commitment to AC , our tourism sector would have a much harder time getting started. Thank god for AC, and all the new investment in the industry that has begun and about to begin.
Throwing stones and trying to break windows has never been a way to succeed in life.
Here is an idea.
Why don’t the union bosses challenge the MP’s on both sides to take a 20% cut in pay, and reveal their salary and benefits to the public in the process.
Because it wouldn’t help much. A 20% reduction in public employees would do it thpugh. That would save tens of millions of dollars.
A good start would be to reduce sick to 10 days a year and vacation to 3 weeks.
With only 10 sick days & 3 weeks max vacation days there would be nowhere near the number of staff needed to cover for each other during all of the sick & vacation days that they get now.
Not sure if that’s meant entirely seriously. But the ridiculous sick leave and vacation situation among public employees should be rectified right away.
@ Creamy. A good start would be to lay off the 20% on work permits and many consultants. Most if not all Govt contracts allow a 90 day notice to terminate without cause. Also the majority of Govt persons do not use up all of their sick days. 8 days uncertified is granted. Anything over that has to be accompanied by a doctor’s certificate. As I noted in one blog, unless all of the physicians are on board granting false certificates, the majority of certified sick leave is legitimate and blatant abuse is subject to disciplinary procedures according to the Govt’s employee code of conduct. You can choose to believe this if you want to but it’s true.
Nope. Lay off people based solely on job performance and need. That’s what happens in the private sector, and it works. Gone are the Bermudian “entitlement” days. Everyone should earn their employment. That’s the fairest way for the taxpayer.
Why is it that private employees manage fine with two weeks sick a year, and public employees need 14 weeks a year? It’s a freakin scandal.
In my opinion, overtime is the culprit of where a lot of excess expenditures lie with many of the uniform service persons like Police, Fire, Corrections, Customs, Immigration, etc. However around the clock work is necessary in these areas. Overtime expenditure with civil servants (non uniform) is very low. It’s just like Minister Richards said, it looks easy on paper to just cut but it’s not that simple.
and what of the retired personnel… namely the ex-politicians still receiving six figures annually for life!? haven’t these clowns like swan, brown, dodwell and the rest of ‘em taken our country’s dried out well for long enough? can’t wait for pati to come up with those figures…cut the s***
i wonder if the bta is writing in a clause like that for themselves in retirement too.
i know where i would make the cuts…
and again i challenge anybody to come up with a better buy bermuda plan, than legal ganja, as an additional pillar in the economy. the savings alone would be substantial, and over %50 of americans [our no. 1 customer base] want ganja legalized, and if they leave from the snow, from the east coast alone, to enjoy burnin’ spliffs on our beaches this will be a lot of economic activity…direct inward investment, and if businesses are set up, government will receive payroll taxes as an additional revenue stream.
legal ganja = increased economic activity…duh.
@ Creamy. 14 weeks is granted if you have worked over 4 years. Up to 5 weeks less than 2 years. You make it as if every single civil servant worker (including Ministry of Finance employees who the Minister praised) takes off 3 and half months which is more than a quarter of each year of sick time and the reality which many here do not wish to accept is that it is simply not the case and not true. It may sound excessive but you may be disappointed to know that the majority do not use up anywhere near this amount of days and any sick leave taken beyond 8 days HAS to be accompanied by a doctor’s certificate. Even with the entitlement, consistent long term abuse with a pattern is referred to a Medial Review board overseen by the Chief Medical Officer. So therefore those wishing to circumvent the system do not wish to go through such hurdles. As I said, that would be a lot of false certificates that would have to be written by our esteemed local (and overseas) doctors to write up that much abused sick time under the presumption that all Govt employees abuse all of their sick time.
Yes, no question many do abuse it and like anywhere else outside of Govt. Are you going to tell me that private employees do not try to abuse their sick leave as well? Only civil servants? Let’s be real. This has to be managed all around. Now are you telling me that there are private companies out there who routinely lay off their workers if they had an accident, broke their leg, etc and were out weeks at time? Just fire them like that? It sounds good to feed the nasty rhetoric, but I have worked in management in both public and private and in reality I know most employers would accommodate for their sick employees especially good employees who may be out weeks and weeks at at a time. So again, all of this hatred and false speculation towards civil servants using all their sick days needs to stop. There are many who never take a sick day all year. The false notion that every civil servant abuses their sick days, uses up all of their sick days and vacation days needs to stop. It’s not true.
You have just demonstrated how out of touch with reality that you are.
Out here in the real world anythinmg more than 2 or 3 days off sick requires a Dr. certificate. Out here in the real world you are more than likely looking at 10 years service before 3 weeks paid vacation is granted.
CS sick day allowances & vacation time after so little time on the job is absurd & only serves to employ more people to cover those off.
Private businesses operate on staff levels that are needed to survive. They are not glorified social assistance that the CS has become filled with people who are unemployable anywhere else. Only Friday I ran into one of those. Somebody in a dealing with the public position totally clueless of the job.
To clarify: civil servants get a total of 8 days of uncertified sick leave a year, if you are sick for longer than two consecutive days you have to get yourself to a doctor and get a certificate to account for your absence.
Private employees get two weeks total. Public employees get 14 weeks. And they use them.
Getting a certificate is easy, a small inconvenience for an extra 12 weeks off a year.
Excuses. If you’re in a private co and you exceed 10 days, you go on long term disability, which means half pay, for a defined period. You’ve never worked as a manager in a private co like you claim, or you would know that.
Cut the 14 weeks to two. It’s a scandal. Here we are, all trying to save the country for our children, and these lazy gits want to sit at home for months every year, paid for by the rest of us.
I am aware of a situation where a low paid worker was was exposed to safe and healthy concerns at work which involved emergency hospital admittance on 3 occasions and which were proven to be founded. Management were offered more than $8000 in compensation. The compensation ‘disappeared’ into a management void because of management hardships indirectly related to maintaining a swimming pool and the necessity of providing boarding school education for their privileged childern. The low paid worker who lives in cramped conditions, who has children and grandchildren in th public systems, and an aging family – the human being who was in hospital does not receive any of the compensation. A mere 2.5%compensation or $200 dollars would go along way for the low paid employer to buy groceries. But apparently not as far as towards one of two +$50,000 boarding school fees! This epitomizes greed, unfairness and the racial disconnect we are facing in Bermuda.
Bermuda has passed the tipping point and all that is happening are band aid approaches to a catastrophic injury. The expenses of Government, plus the debt, have put Bermuda into a downward spiral that cannot be reversed. The OBA have taken too long to implement reductions in expenses necessary for Bermuda as a whole to survive. It has delayed the day of reckoning but it is coming soon. Neither the PLP nor OBA can prevent the coming mass unemployment.
Sadly I think you are correct. The morons that put us in this situation will never be held accountable.
Also, the OBA has pissed around for over two years – they should have acted immediately. Why do we still have no casino? What are they waiting for? Bermudian inaction is staggering.