Acting General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Norris Witter yesterday condemned what he said was government’s continued violation of the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by imposing pay increases on public servants.
He said this points to “hypocrisy” and added that the GTUC was prepared to work to reverse the situation.
“You see it’s not a matter of the quantity of the increase. The issue is the continued violation of the ILO conventions to which this government is a signatory,” Witter told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
Government last week arbitrarily announced a nine per cent across-the-board increase for public servants.
According to Witter, the union noted with great concern that for the seventh year the government violated the right to collective bargaining. He also alluded to the Caricom Charter of Civil Society to which Guyana is a signatory. The charter also provides for and acknowledges the ILO principles to which Caribbean governments have subscribed.
Witter said government seemed bent on trampling on the rights of workers “and we have to put and end to this.” He argued that the government needed to rectify the lawlessness in the country “by first of all setting an example”.
The Office of the President (OP) announced the pay hike for public service workers, retroactive to January 1 this year, even as it planned to meet with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
OP, in a media release, said the formalities would be concluded to allow for the deadline of a payout no later than December 13. This has been the outcome over the last few years as the government and the GPSU have repeatedly failed to reach an agreement.
The GPSU had demanded a 14 per cent pay hike for public servants, while the government’s initial offer was eight per cent.
Turning to other issues, Witter said the union would support Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand’s campaign to modernise legislation to deal with rapists and would also support any venture to create added legislation to deal with other forms of violence. However, he argued that all these efforts would be useless if the rules were not applied across the board, and only persons of certain levels of society were made to feel the force of any such laws.
“So if a minister rapes, he must face the law. If he hits a man down with his vehicle, he must not be allowed to escape from this. And similarly, if a minister or government official speeds even as they carry on a campaign to curb speeding on our roads, he must be charged,” he said.