Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Stephanie Lewis hosted a job evaluation workshop for the Public Services Association (PSA) in keeping with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was signed between the two parties on April 8. The sensitisation workshop for the PSA on the job evaluation exercise for offices in the Public Service, including the Tobago House of Assembly and the Statutory Authorities, was held at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, on July 12. PSA president Watson Duke and his executive attended the one-day workshop. A statement from the Personnel Department of the CPO's office said the session was specifically designed to provide the PSA with an appreciation of job evaluations and their expected role in the conduct of the job evaluation exercise. At the April MOU signing, both parties committed to conduct job evaluation exercises for offices in the Public Service. The workshop was facilitated by human resource management specialist Ashton Bereton who gave a definition of a job evaluation, its purpose, types, advantages and disadvantages of the types, the process and the outcomes.
The statement said: "It is envisaged that completion of the job evaluation exercise will facilitate a new or modified compensation system which will assist in attracting and retaining the best qualified employees; be equitable; gender-neutral; transparent; efficient; readily understood and consistent with the organisational values of the Public Service." Duke, who spoke with the T&T Guardian from Jamaica on Thursday, described the workshop as "a very good session." He said it reminded members of the various types of formats for conducting a job evaluation exercise. "It gave us a better sense for the real need...serious need for job evaluations in the workplace," he said. Duke claimed that since 1966, the Public Service had not been reclassified, nor was compensation reviewed. Asked to comment on the current impasse between the trade unions and the Prime Minister, Duke said: "Wait until I come back, then we'll see about that. The PSA signed on to the five per cent wage agreement after months of protest action.