As dis­cus­sions on pub­lic sec­tor wages per­sist, Unit­ed Pub­lic Of­fi­cers (UPO) leader Oral Saun­ders is urg­ing in­com­ing prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to de­cline the salary in­creas­es ap­proved by the Salary Re­view Com­mit­tee (SRC) and in­stead ac­cept the four per cent of­fer giv­en to pub­lic ser­vants.

Saun­ders, who is run­ning for pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA), high­light­ed the fi­nan­cial hard­ship that pub­lic of­fi­cers have en­dured while wait­ing for salary ad­just­ments.

"While pub­lic ser­vants re­main on 2013 salaries in the year 2025, on a month­ly ba­sis we are forced to play tic-tac-toe with our bills, choos­ing which one is more crit­i­cal and which one can be de­layed for a lat­er time," he said.

"Pub­lic of­fi­cers have tight­ened their fi­nan­cial belt to the ex­tent that they can­not con­tin­ue to bear these aus­ter­i­ty mea­sures and hard­ships for much longer."

The SRC, which re­views and rec­om­mends salary ad­just­ments for gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, re­cent­ly pro­posed an in­crease for high-rank­ing state of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, lo­cal gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and mem­bers of the ju­di­cia­ry. How­ev­er, pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, in­clud­ing nurs­es, and ad­min­is­tra­tive staff, have been ad­vo­cat­ing for im­proved wages af­ter more than a decade with­out in­creas­es.

Saun­ders urged Young, who is set to re­place Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, to take a dif­fer­ent ap­proach.

"We are call­ing on our Prime Min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young to chart a new path and cre­ate a new nar­ra­tive, mov­ing away from self­ish and be­com­ing a self­less leader," he said.

"We would like our Prime Min­is­ter-des­ig­nate to be a leader of all lead­ers in T&T. We are call­ing on the Ho­n­ourable Stu­art Young to re­ject the new salary in­creas­es as it is now im­ple­ment­ed if he be­comes the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T and to al­so ac­cept what­ev­er is the fi­nal salary agree­ment that pub­lic of­fi­cers and oth­er pub­lic sec­tor work­ers will even­tu­al­ly agree up­on by his Gov­ern­ment."

Saun­ders em­pha­sized the im­por­tance of lead­ers stand­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with work­ers.

"When there are tough times, we need work­ers to know that the Prime Min­is­ter is with us. Dur­ing tough times, our Prime Min­is­ter must demon­strate he is on the ground and he is one of us. No leader must be al­lowed to ask their cit­i­zens to make a sac­ri­fice that the leader is not him­self or her­self al­so pre­pared to make," Saun­ders said.

He al­so called on Per­sad-Bisses­sar to make a sim­i­lar com­mit­ment.

"At the na­tion­al elec­tions, we want to call out Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to al­so give that type of un­der­tak­ing if she be­comes suc­cess­ful in be­com­ing the Prime Min­is­ter, that she too will re­ject the new salary in­creas­es as pro­posed by the SRC. Our lead­ers must lead by ex­am­ple."

With the cost of liv­ing ris­ing and many pub­lic of­fi­cers strug­gling, Saun­ders said it is time for those in lead­er­ship to prove they are will­ing to make sac­ri­fices along­side the peo­ple they serve.

Row­ley's salary in­creased from around $59,000 to $87,847 while the Op­po­si­tion Leader's salary jumped from $29,590 to $47,500. May­ors, coun­cil­lors and mem­bers of the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty are al­so in line for salary in­creas­es.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to Min­is­ter Young and is yet to re­ceive a re­sponse on the mat­ter. How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar when asked re­spond­ed: "Ask Row­ley."