PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Richard Gibson will propose that civil servants in the lower end of the wage scale get a monetary Christmas “gift” of between NAf. 200 and NAf. 250 for the holidays.
Gibson told reporters at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers’ press conference that government’s financial predicament is not the fault of these workers, and they shouldn’t be the ones to suffer. “We have an obligation and a duty because it’s not their fault, it’s our fault, no one else. And I am not the one who wants to be the Grinch, who stole Christmas.”
The minister said he discussed the issue in the Council of Ministers meeting and he has asked the department to look into it. He will propose civil servants who are at Scale 5 and below, be given “a small gift” so that they “could have something extra for Christmas.”
“I’m saying that if you bad spend and didn’t control your budget, why should they suffer?”
