The Government has responded with a resounding no to several recommendations for additional benefits for the judiciary, including indexing retired judges’ pensions to current judges’ salaries.
Jamaica’s chief justice currently earns $28.8 million and senior puisne judges $21.9 million while judges of the Court of Appeal are receiving a basic pay of $23.8 million.
“The Government is not in support of any policy that would index the pension of any officer paid by the Consolidated Fund to existing salaries,” Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
“At its extreme, to do so simply means that the Government of Jamaica would be paying, essentially, the equivalent of paying compensation for several sets of people at the same time,” he added.
Clarke said it was fiscally unaffordable.
He said that while there is an argument that judges cannot work in their profession after retirement, this is not entirely accurate.
He said that they are not able to act in a matter that requires them to approach the bench and to appear before the judiciary of which they were once a member.
He suggested that they work elsewhere within the legal system.
“There are several provisions in Jamaican law that require judges to be present, and we make use of retired judges for those,” Clarke said, noting that the recommendation does not find favour with the Government.
He said that accepting the recommendation could create inequity in the society.
Further, he said an oversight in an amendment to legislation caused members of the judiciary, who are paid from and receive their pension from the Consolidated Fund, to not contribute to the latter.
The proposal and three others were made by the Tenth Independent Commission for the Judiciary, which was tasked with investigating the adequacy of judges’ emoluments and benefits.
A raise in health benefits to $2 million was also denied as Clarke argued that this would require a change in the ratio of premium covered by employer versus employee.
Clarke explained that the Government has in place two health-insurance (administrative only) plans for its employees and one plan for government pensioners covered by the Consolidated Fund.
He said the first plan, the Government Employees’ Administrative Services Plan, covers approximately 180,000 employees and their dependents. This includes members of Parliament. The premium ratio is employer 80 and employee 20
Clarke said that under this plan, the Government assumes all risks.
The senior government executive health scheme provides coverage for members of the executive, permanent secretaries, High Court judges, state ministers, heads of departments, the leader of the Opposition, spouses, and children under the age of 19. The premium ratio is employer 70 and employee 30.
Clarke said if the recommendation were to be accepted, it would mean that the premium would also have to be increased, and depending on the extent of that increase, the employer-employee ratio would change.
The government pensioners plan, he said, covers 29,000 people.
Clarke said that for the second recommendation – to increase the tier of the chief justice and president of the Court of Appeal to Category B – as far as motor vehicles are concerned, the Ministry of Finance is preparing a draft policy for the judiciary, but he said that this policy would be aligned with a wider policy that is now being revised.
Added to that, he said the Government has not accepted the recommendation for the status quo to remain in terms of providing vehicles for members of the judiciary as a form of compensation.
Clarke argued that the group is compensated well and can cover this expense themselves.
He said that this is consistent with other public-sector groups except for those where special provisions are legislated.