The Bermuda Public Services Union has called a general membership meeting for Government workers to be held a week from today at St Paul AME Centennial Hall.

The April 29 meeting, which is due to start at 4pm, will be the first to be held since the last general election on December 17, when the new One Bermuda Alliance Government took the helm.

The agenda listed on the meeting notice was wage negotiations for several divisions.

The previous Progressive Labour Party administration’s hopes to realise about $60 million in savings in the new fiscal year by freezing pension contributions and imposing a matching pay cut for its 8,000 workers is also likely to be up for discussion.

BPSU president Kevin Grant told this newspaper in January that the previous government had taken the pension contribution freeze proposal off the table and had indicated it would meet each of the unions separately to discuss the status of their collective bargaining agreements.

Mr Grant said at that time: “As negotiators for the BPSU, regardless of what is put on the negotiation table we are guided by the membership. However, it is up to the BPSU negotiation team to provide as much factual information and statistics so that members can make informed decisions. We are well aware of the protocols and procedures that must be put in place before we start sitting at the table,” said Mr Grant. The BPSU represents about 1,800 government workers.

Efforts to reach a BPSU spokesman by press time last night were unsuccessful.

Salaries and wages amount to about half of the government’s $1 billion budget for 2012/13.