Over 1 000 public servants to be appointed Thursday

by Randy Bennett

From Thursday, more than 1 000 public servants, some of whom are temporary workers, will be officially appointed.

That is according to Attorney General Dale Marshall, who this morning revealed that those workers who have been acting in positions for more than three years would finally get their appointments. However, longstanding employees who do not meet the requirements will have to wait a little while longer.

Speaking in Parliament today on the Public Service Appointment Bill 2020, Marshall said while he did not have a definitive number, between 1 000 and 1 500 Government workers would benefit from the new legislation.

However, he conceded that the legislation was not perfect and had imperfections that would eventually be ironed out.

Under the Public Service Appointment Act, a person who is not appointed to the public service but who has been employed in a temporary office or an established office for three years or more immediately before October 1, 2020, is deemed to be appointed to the post.

Additionally, if a person has been acting in a post for three years or more before October 1, 2020, he or she is deemed to be appointed to the post.

Marshall explained that those workers would be appointed whether they met the qualification bar or not.

Persons would be exempt from being appointed if they had a criminal matter currently before the court or had a criminal record; if they had a pending disciplinary hearing; had been on medical leave for three months in a calendar year; had been sent to the Medical Board; or had received a negative report of conduct.

The Attorney General said the decision by the Government to appoint those workers was “the decent thing to do” as it would afford them a better way of life.

“In a way, this is perhaps the highest calling of a Parliament – that it seeks through legislation to bestow an important benefit on its citizens. We were not, in 2007, looking for perfection and while we have done the best that we could to make sure that this Bill covers as many people as possible with a minimum of friction and waste, we know that there will be some imperfection. But we think that embarking on this particular course of action is not only prudent, it is the decent thing to do,” he said.

While pointing out that the Bill was for “two sets of people”, Marshall said he was aware that there were public servants, some who had been employed by Government for over a decade, who did not meet the criteria for this set of appointments.

He promised that those people, “who the trade unions are concerned about”, would not be left out.

“So, for example, somebody who has been in the public service for 15 and 18 years, and who may have acted in a post for three years but is not currently in that post, those people are not ineligible for appointment. What we are saying is that instructions have been given to the public service to redouble their efforts to ensure that those people get what is their due,” Marshall explained.

He said that going forward, seniority would not be the only criteria for appointment, as merit was equally important.

Marshall outlined that police officers as well as persons in the Prison Service and Defence Force were not covered in the Bill because of “matters of national security”.

He said the Protective Services Commission had given him the assurance it would resolve all issues regarding police promotions within the next three months.

The Attorney General said that as of September 1, 53 immigration officers had been appointed or promoted by the Commission, while the same had also been done for more than 100 Customs officers.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb