APNU leader David Granger yesterday denounced the government’s arbitrarily imposed 5% wage hike announced for public service workers, while Georgetown Public Hospital nurses and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) workers both staged protests over the increase.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon on Wednesday announced that public service employees will be receiving a 5% increase retroactive to January 2013.
The increase fell short of what the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) had earlier proposed—a 25% increase for public
servants for this year—and was the latest award made over the years without the union’s input. In addition to the 25% increase, the GPSU had also been lobbying for a reduction of the income tax rate from 30% to 20%; an increase of the income tax threshold from $50,000 to $100,000; a non-taxable allowance of $40,000 per month for dependents; and a non-taxable allowance of $75,000 for students who are dependents and are pursuing tertiary level education.
Granger yesterday said that while the coalition would not be negotiating with the union and the government, it is in support of the GPSU. “We are not in the business of inserting ourselves in the negotiation process. We respect the right of the public service and the government to negotiate, but we feel that the sum of 5% is out of order and it is not going to bring about an improvement in the quality of life of our public servants,” he said during a press conference at the coalition’s head office in Hadfield Street.
Granger said that factors such as the rate of inflation, high rate of income tax, high rate of VAT at 16% and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) deductions all contribute to making the 5% increase that has been foisted on public servants for well over the past decade next to meaningless.
He added that the act is a flagrant breach of the collective bargaining agreement that the government entered into with the GPSU and as a result he called on the administration to abide by its own agreement and sit down with the union and to desist from the arbitrary impositions.
Granger said APNU also wanted Minister of Labour Dr Nanda Gopaul to invoke a compulsory arbitration process between the parties so as to arrive at a proper living wage for public servants.
Meanwhile, two groups yesterday staged protested in support to express their disappointment at the increase. Several nurses from the Georgetown Public Hospital came out in protest outside of the hospital’s New Market Street entrance, where they called on the government to reconsider the 5% increase as they argued that many of them cannot survive on US$200 a month.
The nurses also called on Granger and President Donald Ramotar to look into several of their concerns, including their allowances, which they said have not been adjusted in over a decade.
GGMC workers also staged a protest outside of the agency’s office on Brickdam, where they carried placards that read, ‘Public Sector workers demand 25%,’ and ‘5% can’t work. This eye pass must stop.’
