Few companies Premier McKeeva Bush said he would approach to give discounts to civil servants facing pay cuts have agreed to give concessions to government staffers.

The premier, in a public address on Monday evening, said he was asking supermarkets, utility companies, banks and the national carrier Cayman Airways to give discounts to Civil Service staff.

Civil servants should not expect to see any drop in their power bills, after Caribbean Utilities Company ruled out giving them a 10 per cent reduction, as requested by Mr. Bush.

A statement from CUC in response to questions from the Caymanian Compass, read: “CUC has received a request from the Premier, the Honourable McKeeva Bush, to grant discounts to electricity rates for civil servants. CUC has responded and advised Mr. Bush that the company does not have the financial resources to grant any further rate reductions following the rate freeze that was in place from 2002 and the rate reductions given in January 2008.”

Neither of the water companies - Consolidated Water Company and the Water Authority – had been contacted by the government to give discounts to civil servants.

The director of the Water Authority, Gelia Frederick-van Genderen, said “We do not have any information on the proposal.”

President and CEO of Consolidated Water, Frederick McTaggart, said his company had “not been contacted directly by government regarding this matter and we would be interested to hear from the Honourable Premier the details of what he is proposing.”

He added that giving discounts specifically to civil servants was not a straightforward matter, saying the company would need more details, such as how long the discounts would last and who would be eligible, before coming to a decision.

“There are people that are facing salary cuts, but others (non-civil servants) have lost their jobs completely.  Will people who have lost their jobs be included in the programme?  Will Government subsidise the discounts?  There are many questions to be answered before we could commit to any such programme,” he said.

Mr. McTaggart added that his company was not in a position to determine which members of the community get subsidies and which do not, “so any such programme would need to be administered by Government, and Government would need to issue appropriate directives to the private sector after agreeing the terms of the programme with the participating private companies.”

Neither Foster’s Food Fair IGA Supermarkets nor Kirk’s Supermarkets can afford to give 10 per cent discounts to civil servants, according to their spokesmen.

“We are just not able to do that,” said Woody Foster, managing director of Foster’s. “We feel we price our products fairly and we don’t have enough fat in there to take out 10 per cent...What we will continue to offer is the best prices humanly possible to all our customers and not just one segment of the community.”

Thom Guyton, managing director of Kirk’s, said: “Firstly, nobody has approached us from government, but we don’t price our merchandise at a point where we can afford to give a 10 per cent discount to anyone,” adding that the company had several regular in-store promotions and offers to help customers save money.

Mr. Bush also asked banks to cut interest rates for civil servants.

Gonzalo Jalles, president of the Cayman Islands Bankers Association said individual banks would have to consider that request and it was not a matter on which the association would make a decision.

“We have not had any discussions on this. It is clearly up to each bank to address this. We are not going to take a decision collectively,” Mr. Jalles said.

Mr. Jalles is also chief executive officer of HSBC, which, he said, did not have many civil servants as clients.

Cayman National Bank, while not specifically agreeing to lower interest rates on loans for civil servants, is willing to look at individual cases.

The bank’s president Ormond Williams said: “We have and will continue to assist our customers on a case-by-case basis and they are aware that we are open to discussing their financial situation and to work with them in a reasonable manner.”

Butterfield Bank, in a statement regarding the Premier’s request, said it was “cognisant that a number of customers, across the entire customer base, have been adversely impacted by the effects of the current economic recession since onset in mid-2008. 

“At Butterfield we look at each situation on a case by case basis and work closely with our customers to ensure their financial obligations are manageable.  We apply the same approach across our entire customer and employee base.  Also, it is important to note that interest rates are already at historic lows, both for borrowers and depositors.”   

However, some companies have agreed to give breaks to struggling civil servants facing wage cuts.

Hurley’s Supermarket and Cayman Imports, part of the Hurley’s Group, will give 10 per cent discounts to government workers twice a month.

“We already have 10 per cent discounts every Wednesday for our customers. To do it another two times a month around civil servants’ pay day isn’t so hard,” said Randy Merren of Hurley’s Group,

He added that to make it worthwhile for his businesses to do this, he would expect a high volume of civil servants to shop at his stores.

“The premier asked us to help, and we can help. It’s the least we can do. If the civil servants are willing to take those steps, we need to make it as painless as possible,” he said.

Mr. Merren said the twice-monthly discounts would only apply to civil servants and a procedure would have to be worked out to establish how those civil servants could identify themselves to store staff to avail of those discounts.

No date has been set for when the discounts would begin, he said.

Auto Spa in George Town is also cutting prices for civil servants. The company is offering 20 per cent off all services on Thursday, which the car spa has dubbed “Civil Servants’ Day”, stating in an advertisement “The Auto Spa appreciates your sacrifice and services to our country at this time.”

By press time, Cayman Airways Limited had not returned calls for comment on whether it would agree to Mr. Bush’s call for a 20 per cent reduction on “needed travel” for civil servants.