The five per cent salary increase given to public servants is a signal to other trade unions what the Government can afford when it comes to wages.So said Minister in the Ministry of Labour Rudranath Indarsingh, the Couva South MP.He was speaking to reporters yesterday just before the start of a march entitled Break The Silence, End Child Sexual Abuse at Gilbert Park, California in central Trinidad.Indarsingh said the Government hammered the deal with the PSA in good faith. "This in itself relates the reality of the economy of T&T and the very fact that we are living in very stringent financial times.
"Time and time again Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran indicated to the country and more so the trade union movement that we cannot offer outside of five per cent, taking into consideration what is available in the coffers of T&T."He said anything more than five per cent would have meant additional borrowing and increasing the debt burden to taxpayers.