GPSU President Patrick Yarde says government’s apparent lack of interest in and regard for commencing collective bargaining arrangements on wages, salaries and allowances for public servants is very “disturbing.”
Yarde’s criticism of government’s posture toward negotiations to increase the wages, salaries and allowances of public servants is nothing new, and his latest reproach stems from the fact that government has not made itself available for a single meeting on the matter since the year commenced.
This is despite statements from Minister of Public Service Jennifer Westford, Yarder says, that the Public Service Ministry (PSM) and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) have recommenced negotiations to discuss workers issues.
During an interview, Yarde told Stabroek News that the union is still waiting for that meeting. He explained that the union met government earlier this year on another matter, and suggested that the minister might have sought to imply that that meeting dealt with salaries, wages and allowances. On June 6, Yarde wrote PSM Permanent Secretary Hydar Alley requesting that a meeting be convened “within five days to commence negotiations of wages, salaries and allowances for the year 2014…”
In the letter the union also told the ministry that it is “concerned that no action has so far been taken on the commitment given nationally by President Donald Ramotar and the