How long will this strike and other forms of protest last? We posed the question to Smith, who said that the ball is in the government's court. She noted that there were compromises put on the table by the unions that they have yet to get a concrete response on. These included land compensation, credit notes, and promissory notes for members who would endure the salary cuts. And until they get that response, they will continue their industrial action.

Elena Smith - President, BNTU
"We have been hearing things being put out that are inaccurate where we see reports where it spoke to the government, they made us compensation offers - none of that is so, it is absolutely not so. We had written to the government in our response and when we had that press conference with the media, we shared with you all the Barbados model, that is what we put to them, they did not put that to us and their respond to us was no they could not do that, that would have been more expense for them to do that. We had put to them the matter of land as compensation and a promissory note as compensation, we expected based on their discussion with us that they would have taken those suggestions that we made to cabinet to get some sort of feedback from cabinet and then come back to us and say listen, we presented these to cabinet, this is what cabinet has decided because you cannot expect us to go our members and say to them, listen members, we have had discussions, you must take the cut but it's not going to be in vein because this is what will happen on account of you taking the cut. We had no definitive responses from them in terms of any compensation package. So for the party, whether it's the party organ, whether the persons who met with us, for them to be putting out that kind of information is quite disingenuous on their behalf and I think that the prime minister knowing fully well based on the reports being given to him by the negotiating team, should have come out to say, you know what, my political organ don't put that out there because that is not so."

PSU's first vice president reiterated what Smith said, and added that at first, the budget consultation team was not even keen on hearing the proposals.

Dean Flowers - First Vice President, PSU
"The unions in an effort to not cause these consultations to spill over into civil unrest, we made some suggestions to the government. The deputy prime minister was welcoming with those suggestions, he said they are genuine suggestions, and he was amenable to take those back to cabinet. The minister of public service and the minister of state in the ministry of finance, were clear that they were not there to take back any proposal, there were there to fulfil the law, which is to consult in terms of what they are going to do and that is the limit to which they wanted to ensure that we understand their purpose there but I will say that the deputy prime minister did entertain the conversation and he did commit to take that back to cabinet. We have not received any response where that conversation is concerned, the government for its part at no point in time made any proposal for compensation to the unions, absolutely none."

A Cabinet brief says that on Tuesday, the ministers agreed that government would, quote "take such steps as necessary to grant a land credit in favour of the affected public officers equivalent to 50% of the salary adjustment, which credit may be exercisable on the acquisition of land from government." End quote.

Channel 7