00:00There continues to be controversy in some quarters of the cabinet's decision to accept
00:05the recommendations of the Salaries Review Commission for hefty salary increase for members
00:10of parliament and other high office holders.
00:13The 120th SRC report proposed salary increases for the prime minister, opposition leader,
00:19MPs, members of the judiciary and the police commissioner, among others.
00:24And while the United National Congress, union leaders and others rejected the proposal that
00:29would see the prime minister's salary increase from $59,680 to $87,847 per month and other
00:39MPs including the opposition get an increased salary too, the government accepted the offer.
00:45This in the face of the Chief Personnel Officer offering a wage increase of 4% to public sector
00:50workers.
00:51Well, Dr. Daryl Dindyal broke his silence today and explained what would have happened
00:56if the government did not accept the SRC's recommendations.
01:01The 113th report was later the same time as the 120th report and the 113th report, Marlon,
01:10froze SRC holders' compensation for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
01:21So in essence, SRC holders' compensation would have been frozen for nine out of the
01:27last 12 years.
01:29More so, if a decision was made not to accept the recommendations of the 120th report, it
01:36would have meant that SRC holders, and to use a term that the prime minister used when
01:42he briefed the nation recently, the management structure of Toronto Big O would have been
01:47frozen for 15 years out of the last 18, and there are implications for that.
01:53The CPO said a job evaluation committee was also formed.
01:57We also had a job evaluation committee, which encompassed individuals in positions like
02:03permanent secretary, assistant solicitor general, an elected official, in the case of a mayor
02:10at that time, a chairman of a commission, persons of the legal fraternity, staff and
02:16experienced professionals in the CPO's office, and that job evaluation committee, Marlon,
02:23was subject to rigorous training from the consultant.
02:26They had to understand the methodology that the consultant was going to be using.
02:30He added, the SRC is an independent body and it is important to note that the SRC only
02:35takes instructions from the president.
02:37Only the president issues an instruction to the SRC, and after the SRC has completed
02:43whatever exercise that is asked of them, they only report back to the president.
02:49The president then, in the case of the 120th report, that is in the domain now, the public
02:53domain, the president will provide a copy to the Honourable Prime Minister, he will
02:57take that to the cabinet, and soon after, later, in the boathouses.
03:01That's the procedure.
03:02Sharla Kesto, TV6 News.
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