by Linda Straker
- New collective agreement begins 1 January 2026
- Fiscal Resilience Act mandates salaries and wages capped to certain percentage of total budget
- Hazzard, elected PWU president in March 2025, currently only female trade union leader in Grenada
Daisy Hazzard, President of the Grenada Public Workers Union (GPWU) has warned the government that the union will not be accepting 4% increases for members under the new collective agreement which should commence from 1 January 2026.
The current collective agreement, which went into effect on 1 January 2023, expires on 31 December 2025. It’s not known if the PWU and other public sector unions have submitted new proposals to Government for consideration. Over the past negotiating cycles, the government has paid an average of 4% increase per annum to unionised public sector employees.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which in 2023 was repealed and replaced with the Fiscal Resilience Act, mandates that the Government cap salaries and wages to a certain percentage of the total budget. Over the years, this has allowed the Government to use this legal measure to contain the amount of increases that are agreed to during negotiations. During the period January 2023 to December 2025, workers received a total of 13% increase in salary: 4% for 2023, 4% for 2024, and 5% for 2025.
In her address to the hundreds of workers and dignitaries at the 2025 Labour Day celebrations, Hazzard said that the union’s negotiating team will not accept 4% increase in the new agreement. “In 2025 we will not beg for bread. In 2025, as your president, I don’t have to brawl with the government in the streets for a just and fair increase. I am letting it [be] known, today we are drawing a line in the sand.”
Hazzard, elected to serve as President of the PWU in March 2025, is currently the only female trade union leader in Grenada.