The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) says it plans to press for a living wage for public sector workers among other goals in the new year.
In a press release the union said it is without question that throughout 2008 there was great need for levels of pay to match the increases in prices and in the cost of living. Government’s failure to pay workers remuneration reflective of increases in the real level of inflation was compounded by its claims that Guyana would not be significantly impacted by the global economic crisis the union said.
The GPSU said too it had not been able to convince the government “to properly negotiate with the objective of ensuring that its employees are adequately and fairly remunerated in consonance with increases… reflected in [its] own cost of living index.” Increases in allowances of 31.01% for 1999 and 26.60% for 2000 were awarded in 1999 by the Armstrong Tribunal which also ordered that the increment be paid with effect from 1999. This was not done and it has had a devastating impact on morale, regardless of performance and no increase was granted, the union said. The GPSU said too this development has contributed to the penury and degradation in which many public servants now find themselves.
The union said government has exhibited gross indifference to its efforts to have the situation corrected within the terms of the Collective Labour Agreement. It said too government’s policy of unilaterally imposing and undermining benefits to workers continues in the face of the Collective Agreement, a legal contract, thereby reducing it to an instrument to be ignored and manipulated in its own interest. In this regard, the GPSU says government consistently resorts to illegal and questionable devices, such as protracting and postponing negotiations and unilaterally determining the rewards to be bestowed on its employees.
Additionally, the Public Service Modernisation Project which the GPSU embraced, raised public servants’ expectations of improvement in the structure and the processes of the public service which have been frustrated and undermined by the administration’s unwillingness to accept and implement in a timely manner, the recommendations of consultants.
In the light of this the union said in the new year it will focus on establishing a trade union movement that is independent, free and insulated from partisan political influence and a modernised career public service in which professionalism, due process and fairness would be guaranteed. It will also focus on introducing a livable wage and the payment of annual increments for public sector workers, implementing the Union Institutional Strengthening Plan; ensuring strict observance by government and other employers of the International Labour Organisation Conventions and Declarations ratified by Parliament. It also intends to lobby for the restoration of the Agency Shop Agreement with the government and establish and enhance recreational facilities for its members. The GPSU said it will also elect an executive council this year.
