A preliminary meeting with the Town Clerk and other officers, who will be attending a conference with the Chief Labour Officer, is set for today as the way forward is negotiated, following the recent strike action by city workers.
This decision was made yesterday by the Mayor and City Councillors during their statutory meeting, when they also agreed that Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and Chairman of the Personnel andTraining Committee Oscar Clarke should join the negotiating team.
The Guyana Local Government Officers Union and the Guyana Labour Union opted to take industrial action after the non-payment of salaries for the month of August, among other issues. However, after a 6-day strike, terms of resumption were signed on Thursday last between representatives of striking city workers and the Local Government Ministry and saw the workers returning in full to their duties as of yesterday.
Discussions will begin today and councillors yesterday expressed concern about Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, going into the meeting unequipped since she was not exposed to such negotiations in the past.
“The suggestion came from you to have the Deputy Mayor and the Chairman of the Personnel and Training Committee there,” Councillor Junior Garrett, Chairman of the Finance Committee, told Mayor Hamilton Green yesterday, adding that this decision should not come from the Mayor but the entire Council.
“This ought to do with the management of the city and we as the managers need to decide on what approach we will take. We cannot expose the Town Clerk to do so alone. She should be guided by our requests,” Garrett said.
Supporting this statement was Councillor Ranwell Jordan who said that some matters are worth putting to council rather than being taken for granted. “In the case of the industrial action… a number of citizens were affected and even workers,” he said, urging the mayor to have the council decide on having the council’s representatives, Chase-Green and Clarke, attend the meeting.
It was stated that protocol had already been breached, since the union had met Sooba at the level of the ministry.
An invitation was subsequently extended by Sooba to the two to meet her and the other officers who will be meeting with Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle. She explained that she was provided with information on ten issues to be raised and they were deemed administrative matters, hence her appointment to be at the meeting.
“They have to meet to know the issues that we won’t budge on and how to negotiate because we don’t want to just go and listen to the minister,” Councillor Eon Andrews said before being corrected by Sooba that neither minister will be present.
Moving over to the financial position of the council, acting City Treasurer Ron McCalmon said that as of September 10, the council’s balance was at $26,783,541 with liabilities as of July amounting to $1.1billion.
He said market contractors were paid for May to July – an amount of $19 million. When asked by the mayor when is the official payday of September, McCalmon said September 25.
He disclosed that the council had not yet received its government subvention and only taxes from the first and second quarter of the year have been collected.
Asked about funds for the restoration of City Hall, McCalmon said of the $5 million received, $3.8 million have since been expended. The mayor quizzed him about whether or not the engineer has constructed a document on how the $20 million, which includes the $5 million already paid out to the M&CC, will be spent and he responded in the negative.
“There are difficulties with the programme of works both for the subvention for 2012 and for the restoration,” Sooba interjected, stating that the remaining $15 million will soon be released although she could not confirm this until after a day or two.
