Dominica (CMC):

Public Service Union (PSU) rejected government's pay offer for the period 2008/2009 and warned that it is not prepared to wait much longer to reach an agreement, according to a report on www.cananews.net.

There is a great chasm between what the government is offering and what the PSU wants. The union is seeking a 16 per cent raise for its members. PSU General Secretary Thomas Letang said his union is also interested in negotiating terms for a three-year period.

"I can tell you straight that our response is that we will not accept the two per cent for 2008/2009, and our position is let us negotiate for the entire period," said Letang.

"We are in contact with our mobilisation team, and our members are interested in negotiations starting very, very soon, and that we negotiate for a three-year period," he added.

The government said, however, that it has to carry out a reclassification exercise before returning to the negotiating table - a stance that has not gone down well with the PSU executive.

"So this thing about we are not going to negotiate for the second year and the third year until the outcome of the reclassification, the executive met today and we have completely and totally rejected that suggestion."