Pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) Wat­son Duke has said the mem­bers of his or­gan­i­sa­tion will not ac­cept any ex­cus­es from the Gov­ern­ment dur­ing this 2011-2013 salary ne­go­ti­a­tions pe­ri­od. He said he was not con­vinced the Gov­ern­ment was do­ing all that could be done to col­lect the nec­es­sary rev­enue to en­sure that the min­i­mum salary of a pub­lic ser­vant would be $7,000 a month. He was speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at the PSA head­quar­ters, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain. Duke sug­gest­ed the way to avoid any dis­ap­point­ment for some PSA mem­bers, who would stand to re­ceive an in­crease of more than what would amount to more than 40 per cent, was by im­ple­ment­ing the prop­er­ty tax. He added: "We feel pub­lic of­fi­cers have been cheat­ed to a great ex­tent. We feel as if ex­pec­ta­tions this time around are go­ing to be met with sor­ry words that our econ­o­my is not do­ing well and we are not in a mood for any five per cent, six per cent or even any nine per cent."So in our re­vis­it­ing of the facts of the econ­o­my over the last few months, we are now con­vinced to say the prop­er­ty tax should be re­in­stat­ed."

Duke said his union had been mon­i­tor­ing the Gov­ern­ment since the be­gin­ning of PSA ne­go­ti­a­tions and was not sat­is­fied with what it had seen so far. He added: "We are dis­sat­is­fied with the way the Gov­ern­ment is han­dling prof­it ex­pen­di­ture. We be­lieve much more can be done. "But par­tic­u­lar­ly we are dis­sat­is­fied with the ef­forts made by the Gov­ern­ment to col­lect all its rev­enue and to raise rev­enue." The union leader said the prop­er­ty tax was ide­al for re­claim­ing funds as the rich were be­ing al­lowed to op­er­ate freely with­out feel­ing the pinch of the econ­o­my and that would en­sure the Gov­ern­ment was able to ex­tract the nec­es­sary funds from the well-to-do. "The rul­ing class has been en­joy­ing a type of vice that on­ly they alone can savour and en­joy, which is own­ing prop­er­ties all over the place," he said.

While the rich are liv­ing free there had been an in­crease to na­tion­al iIn­sur­ance, de­par­ture tax and the prices of cer­tain gro­cery items, he said. He added: "It is un­fair that pub­lic of­fi­cers are liv­ing on the edge of pover­ty. This is why the PSA has la­belled this ne­go­ti­a­tion pe­ri­od 'Af­ford­able Liv­ing: our Fun­da­men­tal Right'. "We are not go­ing to sit down and roll over. For years we have been fight­ing to put this coun­try ahead and what do we have to show for it? ... bro­ken fam­i­lies, emp­ty bank ac­counts. Noth­ing to show for it." Duke al­so sug­gest­ed the PSA might stage protests against a num­ber of so­cial ills. He said: "I'm telling you this, I'm feel­ing it com­ing on. I'm feel­ing a big march com­ing up. This is in the not-too-dis­tant fu­ture. "It is not for mon­ey this time. These are so­cial is­sues we are march­ing for and I would not say what it is but the PSA is go­ing to take on so­cial prob­lems that have long been crip­pling the pub­lic of­fi­cer from re­al­is­ing the full po­ten­tial."