And a part of getting those numbers right has been the proposals of certain concessions to the unions.
Last night on "Uncut", Fonseca said that the unions have rejected all of the government's suggestions to soften the blow of a pay cut. Apart from the 15% cut of Minister's salaries and a 50% cut of their allowances, there were also talks of reduced working hours for the public service.
And that's just scratching the surface because Minister Fonseca said they've offered all that they can – and now he's asking, what else could they want?
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Minister of Education & Culture "Everything that has been asked of us from the unions, we have tried to deliver on. They talked about the salaries of ministers, we have addressed all of those issues, everything. Their own commitment as you mentioned earlier, we have made facilities available through DFC, the National Bank, we've reached out through the Central Banks to the commercial banks to ensure that they are able to carry their loans and do not get into any default. All of these issues we have been trying to soften the blow, we've discussed trying to negotiate packages for our teachers for example internet packages for our teachers again to soften the blow. So, we've looked at everything that we could possibly do, we've asked the unions, I would throw that question to the unions – what more can we do? What more can we put on the table that will allow us to find common ground that we seek."
And if you're wondering how comes we've had so much from the Government and you've heard nothing from the unions…well, both the PSU and APSSM leadership reserved comment for another day, while the BNTU was on the final day of a national convention to elect a new executive.
