While welcoming the “modest increase” in wages and salaries for public servants proposed in this year’s national budget, former union leader Gillian Burton-Persaud on Wednesday accused the government of attempting to deceive workers by not making the increases retroactive to the start of the year.
During her presentation on the budget in the National Assembly, Burton-Persaud, a former President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and current PPP/C parliamentarian, called the increases a “partial fulfilment” of a campaign promise.
During its election campaign, APNU+AFC had promised significant increases for public servants. However, it has been criticised for misleading workers about the scope of the proposed increases, which are retroactive to July 1st, as well as for its failure to negotiate the increases with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU). For years, the GPSU had also criticised the previous PPP/C administration for imposing increases on workers without negotiating with the union.
Burton-Persaud, who described workers as the “nation’s most valuable resource,” said she saw the announced increases as a “calculated attempt to rob” the workers.
She further said every trade unionist would know that all increases “are from the anniversary date of negotiation” as stipulated in their respective collective bargaining agreements. However, she lamented that the increases were decided in the absence of consultation between the government and trade unions and said it enabled “the gross inaccuracies” as it relates to the composition of the salary increases. She was adamant that if the trade unions were involved in the process, then the error would have been pinpointed and corrected.
Burton-Persaud, who joined the PPP/C ahead of its campaign for re-election in 2011, served as a manager for the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project during the previous administration and in that time she was not publicly critical of the administration’s failure to negotiate increases with the unions.
Burton-Persaud also emphasised the importance of labour to the sustainability of the country and against this background she questioned the decision to absorb the Labour Ministry under the Social Protection Ministry.
According to her, this has now created a vacuum. “Who is the designated Minister of Labour? Why were the responsibilities of the labour ministry not gazetted under an appointed minster? Who does the labour department answer to and forward critical cases? Which government personnel is responsible for filing legal matters of a labour nature? Who represents government matters in a court of law?” she asked.
Burton-Persaud called the reduction of the Ministry of Labour to a department a “disrespect to the work, struggle and sacrifices of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, the father of trade unionism, all trade unionists and workers of Guyana.”
Meanwhile, she did welcome the reinstatement of the subvention for the Critchlow Labour College, which had been withdrawn under the previous government.
In 2008 and 2009, Burton-Persaud, then president of the GTUC, had called for the restoration of subventions to the college. She did, however, defend the former government’s decision to withdraw the subvention on the grounds that the institution lacked “accountability.”
She pointed out that current Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine could testify to the “nightmare” he faced as principal of the college and the disrespectful nature of some of the personnel, which she said forced him to resign. As a result, she urged that with the return of the subvention there must be accountability and scrutiny of the composition of the board as it relates to the trade union representation.
