1 Public employees whose salaries were slashed by 8 percent in 1991 as part of government austerity measures won't face any more pay cuts, under a constitutional amendment approved by the parliament.
2 After two days of heated debate, the House of Assembly voted 20-6 late Wednesday to amend the constitution to protect the salaries of the more than 20,000 government workers from cuts.
3 The amendment fulfilled a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who took office last September.
4 His predecessor, Erskine Sandiford, was forced to call elections two years early after he lost a no-confidence motion in Parliament.
5 The economy strengthened but Sandiford's popularity plunged after he imposed the belt-tightening measures, which included the pay cuts and firing 3,000 government workers.
6 More than 25,000 people marched in the streets of this normally tranquil former British colony of 257,000 to protest the measures.
7 Sandiford said the cuts were needed for Barbados to compete worldwide.
8 He restored government workers' salaries to their 1991 levels before leaving office last year.
9 Arthur has said that the public employees will receive wage hikes this year to be negotiated by their unions.

Public employees whose salaries were slashed by 8 percent in 1991 as part of government austerity measures won ' t face any more pay cuts , under a constitutional amendment approved by the parliament .
austerity
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