Over 300 employees of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) yesterday began a strike to press for the removal of the acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba over the non-payment of salaries for last month, among other standing issues.
Yesterday morning, a large group of workers turned out at City Hall and remained for several hours as they protested against the delay of salaries, which Sooba later told this newspaper would be paid during the course of the day.
According to Sooba, the final day for salaries to be paid out was scheduled to be August 26 but with the slow tax collection income, everyone could not be paid in a timely fashion.
She noted that within the past two and a half weeks, she paid out $140M in salaries, with this process being completed yesterday, paying every worker.
“We usually have a problem and all the other months were the same but it seemed to be personal this month,” the acting Town Clerk said, adding that Public Relations Officer Royston King had been using the situation to draw focus on other matters.
“After they realise that salaries would be paid, they start talking about me not responding to letters. I can’t take my time to respond to irrelevant letters.
I don’t have time to deal with Royston and his foolishness. The time I would take to respond to his letters I can sign 15 cheques,” she noted.
Workers who spoke with this newspaper said that they are often paid their salaries late, but the situation was exacerbated this month as many of the parents among them are preparing to send their children back to school on Monday.
“Monday school opening… today is Friday! When will people get to buy they two fine thing to send the children to school? It’s always something with these people… the people who getting pay every week, they does want give them the cheque till late Friday afternoon when they can’t change it at the bank!
How will people survive under this system?” one woman who preferred not to be named said.
Among the sections of the M&CC that have been affected by this strike are those responsible for the municipality’s abattoir, the markets, the public health department, and the childcare and welfare office.
General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), which represents some of the workers, Carvil Duncan said that although there was a delay in the payment of salaries, the workers were not informed of the circumstances surrounding the situation and as a result opted to take industrial action.
He explained that the union has written to the Town Clerk on more than one occasion but have not received a response. “That aggravated the workers to take this position—which the union fully supports—and I am sure that all civil-minded citizens will support it as well, knowing that school will be opening soon,” he noted.
Duncan pointed out that among the things that were to be discussed during a requested meeting were outstanding overtime payments and the formula used to calculate retirement benefits.
In addition, President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU) Dale Beresford stated that the workers belonging to his union have commenced industrial action. “There are several issues we are striking for… there is the non-communication for the non-payment of salaries for August 2012, the status of our officers’ deposit, Mr. (Royston) King’s letter of instructions and the victimisation of employees by the Town Clerk,” Beresford told Stabroek News.
He noted that since her appointment one month ago, Sooba has failed to meet with the union and has had no communication with them although it too had written letters to her. “There was not even an acknowledgment,” he added.
The GLGOU President said that he is also concerned about Sooba’s ineffective management. “We are convinced that the Minister’s appointment of Sooba as Town Clerk acting was a grave injustice to this municipality. She’s unqualified, inexperienced, lacks the attitude of a senior officer and lacks the administrative capacity to manage this council in this time of crisis and we are saying that she should go,” he noted.
Beresford maintained that all sections will remain closed until Sooba is removed from office. “We will not relent until she is gone,” he reiterated.
Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green told Stabroek News that the workers are “quite justified” to withhold their services and noted that he empathised with the workforce of both unions in the situation, since they should have been paid.
“We’ve received several complaints not only from workers but from council about the attitude and seemingly the dictatorial philosophy that encrusts the incumbent actions of the Town Clerk,” he said.
“In extant circumstances, where the majority are parents and/or guardians of children in school… they have responsibilities to provide the basics, so that as school reopens those children will be able to seize the opportunity to begin the new school term appropriately clothed and equipped to take advantage of the most important aspects of their young lives,” he added.
Green said that apart from the non-payment of salaries, there were the issues of the order to remove vendors along Regent Street and the order to have City Council spokesperson Royston King proceed on leave, which were both passed by Sooba.
The Mayor considered this to be inappropriate, since neither he nor the Deputy Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, was consulted by Sooba on these matters.
“Before I left the country, I left my numbers and there is a system that she (Sooba) can get me on that is of no cost to the council,” he explained. Chase-Green too was available for discussions about these issues, he pointed out.
According to Green, unless the government is prepared to take “decent measures” that are consistent with the highest of democratic principles to deal with the Georgetown municipality, there will be no ultimate change.
“I have good reasons to believe that the concerned ministry and government as a whole seem comfortable as the engineer of the problems we now face… the strangulation of funds, the identifying of officers at the behest of the Minister and not the Mayor and City Council and ignoring the pleas of both the unions and the council,” he said.