The Minister of Labour, Human Services and Social Security is urging all public and private businesses to cooperate in its Occupational Wages and Hours of Work survey which is being conducted countrywide.
The survey will be conducted across all the administrative regions until August 15, the ministry said in a press release. The data is expected to help the ministry evaluate the conditions of work and employment costs.
Since employees vary according to the level of education, skill, occupation, type of industry, size of establishment, and geographical location among other variables, data collection and analysis is crucial to effective career planning and counselling; facilitate efficient allocation of educational resources and overall educational planning, and providing information to potential investors, employers, workers and trade unions.
April 2014 will be used as the reference month therefore information would be sourced from businesses’ wages and salary sheets for the reference period. The survey will be conducted in compliance with “Chapter 98:01 of the Laws of Guyana which requires businesses to submit information on labour statistics to the [ministry]” and “ILO Convention160 and recommendation 170, which deal with labour statistics and the importance of countries ensuring that these types of statistics are regularly compiled.” Guyana is a member of the ILO and has strongly supported its policies.
The ministry is appealing to businesses to cooperate in the study to allow for greater accuracy in the statistics reported. It also assures both employers and employees that confidentiality stipulations will be strictly enforced to protect them. The final report will highlight trends in industries without identifying specific businesses.
To date the ministry has completed eight surveys the first of which was done in 2003. For more information persons can access the ministry’s website or contact the Statistical Unit at telephone number 223-7408.
