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" Policy goal met."That was how Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke responded to Tuesday's finale to his efforts to settle the outstanding 2021/22 pay issues with the Government's employees. Having achieved full support from 98 per cent of the public sector workforce, their trade unions and staff associations following the Jamaica Police Federation's (JPF) consent Tuesday, Dr Clarke said that it was time to move on to implementing the promised Public Sector Compensation Review, beginning April 1, 2022."This is a policy goal. I started the year saying that I needed to get this done, and I have gotten it done now...and it now paves the way for us to implement compensation restructuring," Clarke told representatives of the JPF and the press attending the signing ceremony at his ministry at National Heroes' Circle in Kingston."We consider it significant that we have arrived at this point which signifies, for all practical purposes, pretty much the completion of the arrangements for the 2021/22 fiscal year," he told representatives of the police team, which was considered one of the last major obstacles to the public servants' acceptance of a one-year interim pay increase package covering the period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022."To think that through dialogue and discussions we have been able to achieve agreement with the bargaining groups and trade unions representing 98 per cent of public sector workers, we will today sign a testimony to the social cohesion of the Jamaican society...That puts us in a position to now focus on the implementation, or the beginning of the implementation of the compensation restructuring in the new fiscal year," Dr Clarke said Tuesday.JPF Chairman Corporal Rohan James, meanwhile, pointed out that it had been a "long road" in coming to a position on the minister's offers after some "painstaking discussions". However, he said in the end the decision was a sacrifice the police had chosen in the interest of country's security.He stated a number of the points raised by the members of the constabulary were addressed during the talks with the ministry, and committed that the federation would seek to ensure that, at the end of the day, the membership gets what they desire and is in the interest of all parties, including the people of Jamaica."...So we hope that the symbolic gestures are in the good faith that we have embarked upon," he added.Clarke, who had signed off on a similar agreement with the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) on Monday, noted that the large membership of the two bodies - teachers and police personnel - boosted the process extensively. The JTA is said to have 20,000 teachers, while the Police Federation includes several thousand members up to the rank of corporal.Last year when that agreement expired, Dr Clarke offered an interim one-year agreement of four per cent wage increase, which was later widened to include full retroactive pay dating back to April 21, as well as a $40,000 one-off payment.The offer was initially rejected by the major unions but, eventually, what seemed like an early rebuff of the minister's offer, suffered from a slow disintegration of the opposition to it. This signalled that the unions had found value in a proposal from Clarke to introduce the long-delayed compensation reform for the sector.The minister informed the unions that the Government was willing to proceed with the Public Sector Compensation Review within the targeted timeline of March 2022. The review was intended to overhaul the structure of salaries and other emoluments paid the public service, and to make it more equitable."We have made a commitment to begin implementation in April, and we will not [allow] anything to stop us from doing that," the minister said then.