The remuneration paid to Parliament reporters seems inadequate for the heavy workload and long hours. Within the past two weeks five Parliament Reporters reportedly resigned from the “stressful workload”.
Parliament Buildings
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, yesterday confirmed that five employees from the Hansards Department resigned. The Parliament Office was able to recruit two new employees since. He declined to comment on the matter further.
According to a source, staff members are generally burdened by long work hours due to the convening of several Committee meetings after the recent National Budget debates. In 2013, the Budget debates began at 13:00 hrs but this year some sittings were convened later than 14:00hrs.
Parliament reporters are required to attend every sitting of the National Assembly and Committee meetings, make recordings and transcribe whatever is said by Parliamentarians.
The source said that the reporters are paid a gross salary of $69,000 and $25,000 duty allowance. Apparently, they do have a 40-hour work week and are not paid overtime for weekends as mandated in the new National Minimum Wage order of July 1, 2013.
According to the source, staff should be adequately compensated for the hours and tasks they do.