Deputy Prime Min­is­ter of St Lu­cia, Dr. Ernest Hi­laire, is call­ing on the pri­vate sec­tor to fol­low the ex­am­ple of the gov­ern­ment and pro­vide their work­ers with a bonus at Christ­mas time.

“It is a philo­soph­i­cal prin­ci­ple. I be­lieve when there are suc­cess­es in the coun­try — high­er pro­duc­tion and high­er rev­enues — it should be shared. You can’t tell the pri­vate sec­tor how to share their prof­its, but I be­lieve the peo­ple that made it suc­cess­ful should ben­e­fit,”  Hi­laire told re­porters.

A gov­ern­ment state­ment Mon­day, quot­ed Prime Min­is­ter Phillip J Pierre as say­ing that the bonus is part of the gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to work­ers and fam­i­lies.

“For the first time in St. Lu­cia’s his­to­ry, civ­il ser­vants will re­ceive con­sec­u­tive De­cem­ber bonus­es un­der this Ad­min­is­tra­tion, an un­prece­dent­ed de­vel­op­ment in the treat­ment of the pub­lic ser­vice,”  the state­ment said.

In De­cem­ber 2024, the St. Lu­cia gov­ern­ment grant­ed pub­lic ser­vants an EC$500 (One EC dol­lar=US$0.37 cents) bonus and the state­ment said “ex­tend­ing the ini­tia­tive in­to 2025 demon­strates the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s con­tin­ued recog­ni­tion of the in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions of pub­lic of­fi­cers in main­tain­ing es­sen­tial ser­vices and ad­vanc­ing na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment”.

Hi­laire, speak­ing to re­porters ahead of the week­ly Cab­i­net meet­ing, said that the an­nounce­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Phillip  J Pierre is “a pow­er­ful state­ment.

“He’s say­ing in the pub­lic space, the pub­lic ser­vants are con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to keep­ing this coun­try where it is and con­tin­ue along that tra­jec­to­ry of suc­cess and there­fore, they should share in some of the good­ness that has come out of their hard work,” said Hi­laire, in­sist­ing that the gov­ern­ment’s move is not just a fis­cal de­ci­sion, but as a prin­ci­pled com­mit­ment to valu­ing the con­tri­bu­tions of work­ers.

He is en­cour­ag­ing lo­cal busi­ness­es to ex­am­ine their own fi­nan­cial out­comes and con­sid­er is­su­ing hol­i­day bonus­es where fea­si­ble.

“If a busi­ness is do­ing well and the books are re­al­ly show­ing it, there’s noth­ing wrong in shar­ing some of it for bonus­es with their work­ers.  In fact, I will call on them to fol­low the ex­am­ple of the Prime Min­is­ter, and where their busi­ness­es are do­ing well and en­joy­ing the fruits of an econ­o­my that has im­proved, they should share it with their work­ers come Christ­mas time.”

Hi­laire, who is al­so the Min­is­ter of Tourism, said the gov­ern­ment has been able to of­fer these bonus­es main­ly due to a strong eco­nom­ic per­for­mance and bet­ter fis­cal man­age­ment, re­sult­ing in bud­get sur­plus­es.

“We have shown sur­plus­es, and there­fore, we can say to the work­ers in the pub­lic ser­vice, ‘Here is part of it, ben­e­fit from that.’”

The gov­ern­ment state­ment gave no in­di­ca­tion as to the amount to be paid to every pub­lic ser­vant as a bonus.

The main op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Work­ers Par­ty (UWP) has been call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to hold fresh gen­er­al elec­tions now, ac­cus­ing the rul­ing par­ty of cor­rup­tion among oth­er al­le­ga­tions.

In the last gen­er­al elec­tion held on Ju­ly 26, 2021, the St.  Lu­cia Labour Par­ty (SLP) won 13 of the 17 seats with two in­de­pen­dent leg­is­la­tors lat­er join­ing the gov­ern­ment.

CAS­TRIES, St. Lu­cia, Sept 16, CMC –

CMC/as/ir/2025