By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

HUNDREDS of promotions held back since before the 2017 general election are on the way for government workers in the coming weeks, including those in the armed forces, State Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said yesterday.

Despite the government's previous decision that all public sector promotions and hiring exercises carried out in the lead up to the 2021 general election were paused and under review, Mrs Glover-Rolle said in recent weeks the service-wide promotions due since before 2017 were completed.

Speaking to The Tribune on Sunday, Mrs Glover-Rolle said this week some corrections officers and immigration officers are expected to receive promotion letters.

She elaborated on the issue yesterday.

“We are very happy to have finished that process in the large percentage immigration’s (promotions) is about 80 percent complete,” the state minister said when asked about the status of corrections and immigration officers' promotions. “So, those letters are being released within this week and, of course, the other armed forces that we’ve spoken about.

“We have some others that are going to be released this week, but we are just waiting on the process to be complete, the letters to be taken care of and then we will get those letters to their respective ministries and the ministries will make the necessary announcement.”

Asked how many promotions were expected, Mrs Glover-Rolle said: “First of all we would have finished the 2017 service wide promotions.

“Those promotions would have been approved since June of 2016 (and) for whatever reason they’ve been on hold up until the end of August and there started to be some movement on them, but, of course, it wasn’t completed.

“So, that is a few hundred as I would have noted before and then there are others that would have come through other agencies as well.”

She added that there had been no reason for the delay in awarding the promotions.

“There is no apparent reason why it was a stall. They were approved since June of 2016 and some movement would have started again in trying to advance them around August of this year.”

Correctional Officers Staff Association President Hervie Culmer said news of the coming promotions represented a “burden lifted from the shoulders” of all who’ve been waiting for years.

He told The Tribune the association never expected the long-awaited awards to materialise so soon after the change in government.

“Officers are more than ecstatic,” Cpl Culmer said yesterday. “Last week Wednesday we would have met with Public Services Minister Fred Mitchell and Minister (of State) Glover-Rolle and the association would have been informed that promotions were forthcoming as soon as possible.

“We didn’t expect them to materialise as fast as she announced on Sunday. We’re grateful because it’s been a long time coming. It’s been a long battle. Those recommendations were down for those promotions since 2018 so it’s a sigh of relief.”

However, he said he was unsure of how many corrections officers would receive their rewards, estimating that it may be as many as 80.

“I know that we had issues with a particular grouping, our sergeants those are coming and there were also some other recommendations that were down there that would total somewhere about 80. That would have been the conclusion of the entire exercise,” he said.