Dear Editor,
In begrudging the “well-paid” workers of the Guyana Power and Light Inc., Mr. Sean Brignandan omitted to mention the fifteen key management personnel who in 2004 and 2005 were remunerated (including amounts payable) totals of $211, 344,000 and $172, 477,000, respectively. (Figures for 2006 and 2007 are not available.) These individuals earned on average Guy $13,000,000 (US$ 65,000) yearly. But we must not envy them, for as Prime Minister Hinds once said, “If one gets a manager from the developed world, you have to pay them their going rates in the developed world; they have to be made comfortable and cover all costs internally in Guyana.”
(GINA Report, May 19, 2003). Managers are paid such salaries because they, not the rank and file workers, are responsible for the success or failure of a company, and when it’s time for heads to roll, they are the first ones who should be summoned to the block.
GPL’s 2004 and 2005 reports can be accessed at http://www.gplinc.com/Annual_ Report_2004.pdf and http://www.gplinc.com/ Annual_Report_2005.pdf
From the reports, one sees that employment costs of GPL include Social Security and Pension, which workers would not get unless they suffer illness, accident or superannuation. When PAYE, VAT and NIS are factored into the equation, GPL workers might just be a little better off than the average Guyanese worker.
I fear Mr. Brignandan has also been fooled by the Myth of the Mean. A very high mean (average) can result from a minority getting stratospheric salaries, while the majority gets tropospheric salaries. We need to know the salary scales and the number of workers in each scale before we can make an informed judgment about the high average in excess of Guy $2 million (US$ 10,000).
In any case, if GPL workers are indeed better paid and are “living it up” (the Guyanese dream, not just the American dream), then the rest of us – sugar workers, teachers, policemen/women, soldiers, nurses, and the other rank and file workers – should take that as a goal to struggle for until we achieve it. GPL workers just happened to be in the right place at the right time, as the rest of us hope to be in our working lifetime.
Yours faithfully,
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett