Cayman Islands civil servants were advised Thursday that salary and pension cuts announced via a 4 March memo would not be taking effect this month after all.

 Officials with the Cayman Islands Civil Service Association confirmed late Thursday that plans for salary cuts between 5 and fifteen per cent in March were being revamped and that proposals for a 100 per cent pension suspension had been deferred.

Also, plans announced in the 4 March memo from Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson, which would have required all civil servants making at least $3,000 per month to pay 50 per cent of their monthly health care premiums, were no longer being considered.

Civil Service Association President James Watler told the Caymanian Compass that the government was still proposing to reduce civil servant salaries by roughly three per cent - basically the amount government workers received in cost of living pay increases last year. However, he said that was just the latest proposal he'd heard.

"It's better than what they had proposed," Mr. Watler said. "Things are extremely fluid right now."

A memo released by Acting Deputy Governor Franz Manderson on Thursday asked government departments to focus on cutting non-salary budgets by at least 15 per cent, in efforts to reduce a projected $61.7 million deficit in government's operations budget.

"These reductions are utterly essential," Mr. Manderson's memo stated. 

Civil service department heads were told that Cabinet members would consider their proposed budget reductions next Tuesday, 16 March.

That 15 per cent budget cut was also ordered by Mr. Jefferson in the 4 March memo.

Neither Mr. Jefferson nor Premier McKeeva Bush was in Cayman at the time of the announcement. Both men, along with Cayman Islands Governor Duncan Taylor, were involved in negotiations with the United Kingdom in London.

UK officials are currently reviewing an independent commission's report that suggested a number of measures Cayman might take to get it through its current budget crisis. Although that report has not been made public, it was understood it recommended major cuts in the public sector.