The Government says it welcomes the meeting today with the four public sector Unions in which the the Unions were invited to make their final representations to the Chief Minister ahead of the Budget session of the Parliament which will be held on Monday 30th June. 

A statement continued: “In the run up to today, the Government has shared confidential information with the union representatives in order to enable them to provide detailed feedback from their working groups. 

“For its part, the Government has carried out the relevant calculations necessary ahead of an announcement in respect of increases in minimum wage and public sector pay during the Budget session. 

“The Chief Minister clarified to the relevant Union representatives during the course of the meeting that, given that the Government is not considering a pay rise based on a fixed sum, but a percentage pay increase for the public sector as a whole, it will make the relevant announcement at the Budget session, as has been the case always in the past. 

“The announcement will follow consideration of all matters put during the course of the discussions by the Union representatives as well as all relevant factors from the point of view of the Government. 

“This will, obviously, include a balancing of average earnings across the board in Gibraltar, average earnings in the private sector and average earnings in the public sector.”

The Chief Minister said: “I was very pleased to be able to attend today’s meeting. Two weeks ago I had to jump out of the meeting at the very last minute to deal with the then ongoing treaty negotiations. As that process comes to a conclusion, I enjoyed being able to meet Union colleagues again and share ideas about how these pay negotiations might be concluded. As the representative of all taxpayers, not just those in the public sector, I explained the difficult balancing act that I have to do as Minister for Public Finance in the use of taxpayers money. I know that the vast majority of our public sector workers understand this and they do not want the Government to spend more than the taxpayer can afford. I also know that the vast majority of taxpayers, whether they are public sector workers or private sector employees, will not want the Government to do anything which undermines our ability to provide the best public services to our people, especially in matters related to education and health. I therefore trust that our position on remuneration in the public sector will be well received across the board when I announce it during the Budget debate. To be clear though, no one should expect a double-digit public sector pay rise or anything of the sort – although I understand that the Unions may have pitched their bids high for the typical horse trading that traditionally ensues in pay negotiations in the private sector.”