President of the Guyana Public Service Union, Patrick Yarde, says a dark cloud is looming following what he said is the government’s obvious lack of conscience shown through its political spin regarding the $21 billion in cuts by the joint majority opposition to the national budget.
Yarde in a message on the observance of May Day 2012 said the truth of the matter is that the “government failed in its quest to satisfy the combined opposition that the sums cut were indeed required during 2012, resulting in the combined opposition deciding that until the matters were clarified to their satisfaction, a nominal sum of $1 would be made available.”
“The nominal sum of $1 is a clear indication that the matter could be revisited and possibly approved at a later date,” the GPSU president added.
According to a copy of his message, Yarde noted that the government, including the President, would have the nation believe that the joint opposition was “callous and uncaring.”
However, Yarde pointed out that when Channel 6 was suspended on more than one occasion from the airwaves and Stabroek News was denied advertisements and government removed the subvention and grants to Critchlow Labour College, the Guyana Trades Union Congress and the Women’s Advisory Com-mittee to the National Assembly, there was no consideration for the employment of staff and their children or households.
“The joint opposition cut funding to GINA and NCN, while requesting of government certain reforms. What was clear was that the joint opposition was demanding that these entities produce a people’s product, as opposed to openly serving the interests of the ruling party at taxpayers’ expense,” Yarde argued.
He also observed that it’s taxpayers’ expense since the assets of these agencies were taxpayer-funded and so were the subventions that funded its operational costs.
Yarde said that he was curious to know where the revenues of these agencies are since the government indicated during the budget debate that the subventions of GINA and NCN were 30% and 10% of their respective revenues.
“If these percentages are mathematically extrapolated then the revenues are considered significant and in the context of other media houses are self-sustaining,” Yarde said.
According to the GPSU president, “the truth is that the rigid conduct of the PPP/C government has not changed as it continues to display its insensitivity for public servants, and by extension, the citizenry of Guyana.”
Contract workers
Yarde also raised what he referred to as “the nagging issue of “contract workers”, charging that the government has increased the number over the years “to serve its better good, rather than that of the nation as a whole.”
Noting that a public service establishment exists under the supervision of a constitutional agency, the Public Service Commission (PSC), Yarde questioned why there should be a need to have contract workers to perform tasks allocated within the establishment.
“Why is the Office of the President, through its arm the Public Service Ministry, usurping the authority of the PSC to employ such workers?,” Yarde asked.
And according to the GPSU president, the answers to these questions are simply, “To employ political cronies and workers who must do government’s bidding or face the axe.”
Yarde noted that over the past years the GPSU has been in a constant struggle to preserve hard won rights and benefits for all public servants, whether or not they were members.
According to Yarde, the union could reflect proudly at its achievements and he noted that the GPSU had successfully undertaken representation for doctors and lawyers.
“Ironically, persons who approached the union, (then as public servants and members) which includes serving ministers in the government, and have benefited to their satisfaction from such representation, are currently in the vanguard attempting to undermine the effectiveness of the union and to deny current members that privilege and such benefits.”
He also cited the unification of the Guyana Public Service where open vote and temporary workers were placed on the fixed establishment in permanent pensionable positions, enjoying security of tenure with the privilege of making a career in public service.
But now, Yarde contended, “there are the backward, unenlightened and anti-working class policies that constantly degrade these career positions to annual contractual employments at the whim and fancy of the politicians.”
He also expressed the view that public servants were once privileged to be paid realistic allowances that were comparable with prices of the day, but “these have been eroded by unconscionable and spiteful decision-making.”
In that light, Yarde said it was “appalling to hear the President of the Republic (Donald Ramotar) speak of “APNU”, who he called “a creature of the PNCR” not honouring promises, but the PPP/C government failed to honour its commitment and obligations to improve the allowances of public servants as it related to the awards by the Armstrong Tribunal and thereafter.
Yarde drew attention to the amendment to the Constitution of Guyana to facilitate the creation of a Public Service Appellate Tribunal to enable public servants to enjoy the privilege of due process and natural justice but asserted that “this was eroded by the government’s failure to reappoint the Tribunal for more than a decade.”
He recalled too that the GPSU was privileged to enjoy free collective bargaining and to have agreements with government treated with respect but “the current trend of disrespect followed the death of a respected President and leader of the PPP/C.”
The union was privileged to share an environment where government itself submitted and ratified ILO Conventions No. 87, 98, 149 and 151 that guarantees workers’ rights, specifically addressing nurses and public servants in the last two conventions referred to, in conformity with international standards but the “tenets of these conventions are currently shamelessly ignored with impunity.”
Yarde said further that the “union was able to function in an enlightened environment where differences and confrontations were ultimately resolved with openness to mutual satisfaction of all parties, regardless of the severity of nature or extreme circumstances surrounding the issues.”
However, “since 1999 and the Armstrong Tribunal award, the union was treated with indifference and as a target of governmental abuse,” Yarde charged.
He also highlighted that since the year 2000, “the government unleashed a reign of terror where the union came under severe attack with the result that it was suffocated by the disbanding of its membership through government’s action that resulted in the re-registration of the union’s membership and the dishonouring of the “check-off” and Agency Shop agreements.”
According to the GPSU president, “government’s action in effect led to a significant portion of the union’s membership becoming estranged and ultimately the financial suffocation of the union.”
According to Yarde, “with that result came vicious attacks on the membership, who were then beset with discrimination, victimization, including being terrorized and dismissed. If vindicated by the Law Courts, the Court Orders were often flouted, without redress.”
Yarde also underscored that “for as much as ten consecutive years the union’s representations for better conditions of service and improved remuneration were overlooked, in favour of government imposed tidbits, which over time relegated more and more workers to abject poverty.”
But in this regard, Yarde maintained that the union remains “resolved to reason with the unrelenting government functionaries, who seem to find solace in putting the country’s human resources at risk, in favour of much touted capital development that most may not live to enjoy.”
