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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, October 07, 2020 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is forging ahead with its phased approach to regularizing the employment status of more than 4,000 employees of the Skills Empowerment Training Programme (STEP) and Government Auxiliary Workers (GAE) into the public service.

Theprocess is being spearheaded by the STEP Regularization and Pensions Reform Committee, headed by Mr. Levi Bradshaw, Accountant General. 

TheCommittee met today (Wednesday, October 07) with Permanent Secretaries and other senior level government officials at the Department of Agriculture Conference Room, where an update was given on the transitional process for these two categories of employees.

PrimeMinister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris stated on Tuesday (October 06) evening that Mr. Bradshaw will be the special guest on the next edition of Leadership Matters where further detailed information on the regularization of STEP and GAE workers will be provided. 

TheGAE, formerly called non-establishment workers, used to receive a payment called honorarium, which was paid at two percent of their accumulated salary per year. That payment was stopped in 2008 under the previous administration, with the understanding that the two percent would instead go into their pension account. However, the pension fund was never created.

Moreover, in February 2017, the Team Unity administration reorganized, restructured and repositioned STEP – formerly known as the People’s Employment Programme (PEP) – to ensure that the trainees receive genuine training, are imbued with the necessary work ethics, and give value for money.