Public servants in St.Vincent will benefit from a salary increase of 1.5 per cent which will not be taxed when they are paid this week.
The money is half of the three per cent salary increase owed to them since January 2011.
Half of the amount was paid last year, and on Sunday which was Independence Day, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves confirmed that the money would be paid this week.
“As our Government has demonstrated repeatedly, we keep our promises solemnly which we make to our people, even though sometimes, now and again, infrequently, circumstances may conspire to cause delays in the delivery of a specific promise,” Gonsalves said as he delivered his Independence Day address.
“Accordingly, in their October pay check next week, all categories of public servants, including daily-paid employees will receive backdated to January the 1, 2011, a one-and-a-half per cent increase in salary, the balance to the heretofore-agreed salary increase,” he said as he addressed the Military Parade at Victoria Park, in Kingstown.
