Among the issues raised by President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Mr Patrick Yarde in his opening address to the Union’s Twenty First Biennial Delegates Conference last week was the worrisome issue of the continued occupancy of the Camp Street complex by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in the face of the revelation some weeks ago by GRA Board Chairman Mr Rawle Lucas that the physical conditions pose a threat to workers’ health and arrangements should be made for the relocation of the staff at the earliest possible time.
Specifically, Mr Yarde made the point that some members of staff of the GRA may have already had to seek medical treatment for ailments that might be related to conditions inside the complex and that the union would expect the government to accept liability for such medical expenses as might arise therefrom.
That of course is a different ball game altogether and it would certainly help if some definitive clarification could be provided regarding the truth or otherwise of the rumoured illnesses as well as their nature, assuming that they exist.
All of this has to be seen against the backdrop of what has been a history of some ministries and departments of government as well as schools being housed in what, sometimes, have been the most deplorable conditions against the backdrop of a marked indifference on the part of government to the safety and health of its workers. Indeed, one would hope that the Camp Street complex issue would trigger a far broader effort to create safer, more convivial spaces in which all state-employed workers and children attending state-run schools can work and study.
Mr Lucas, of course, is to be commended for raising the matter of the suitability of the Camp Street complex as a home for the GRA since it would appear that the official posture prior to his public pronouncement was simply to grin and bear it, (or perhaps to simply pretend as though the problem didn’t exist) a position that was fraught with continued risk to the well-being of the workers.
In so far as this newspaper is aware, the situation inside the complex is not getting any better. In fact, we have been reliably informed that sections of the building are no longer being used. If this is true, it is yet another disturbing development that warrants some more detail.
Things have gone somewhat quiet since the initial revelations regarding the state of the building and while, on the one hand, we are told that efforts are being made to do some restoration and rehabilitation work to presumably render it safer, we are yet to be furnished with any expert opinion as to what particular dangers the building might currently pose to its occupants.
If the safest immediate term option would appear to be to find another location for the GRA staff, we know that that is easier said than done. The current occupants of the Camp Street complex were assembled from several different premises comprising the various departments of the GRA and placed there. It will not be easy to disassemble them and put them back together again in any single available building. The ‘solution,’ in the short term (at least so we are told) is to undertake work to sanitise the premises, thereby, hopefully, rendering it safe for occupancy by the GRA workers, for the time being. At another level the GRA situation recalls to mind the discourse that has been ensuing over several years about the creation of accommodation in a dedicated space for government ministries and other critical state entities as is the case in some other Caricom territories.
While Mr Lucas’ pronouncement included reservations about the long-term occupancy of the building by the GRA, there has been no mention made up to now about a time-frame for relocating the GRA staff altogether. That, of course, raises the issue as to whether, for whatever period of time the building continues to be occupied by the Revenue Authority, there is likely to be any further risk to the health and wellness of the workers.
Several issues arise here, the first being the need for the government to deal as quickly and as thoroughly as possible with the short-term remedial measures which have been mooted whilst coming up with a plan for the relocation of the GRA workers. The government also has an obligation to carefully monitor the situation inside the complex as it pertains to the safety and health of the workers with all of the professional support needed. Here, we agree with Mr Yarde that such costs as might arise from either preventative or curative measures associated with protecting the workers should be met in full by government, since it is government’s responsibility to keep its workers safe on the job.
Incidentally, an argument has arisen in some quarters about just how the relocation of the GRA in the short term might stack up against the possible disruption of its work given its critical importance as the entity primarily responsible for national revenue collection. The short answer there is that while no rational being would dismiss the key importance of the role of the GRA, whatever decision is taken has to put the well-being of the workers first. There is no option here.
As for the eventual medium to long-term solution, a lot, presumably, will depend on what plays out inside the complex in the period ahead. This newspaper understands that a submission has been (or is being) made to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan regarding the financing of the short-term remedying of the immediate problems at the complex. Rather less is known about a longer-term plan for evacuating the building, a time-frame for which may well be determined by just how safe it proves to be in the period ahead.
There is a role for the union here and it is a good thing that the GPSU President reflected an awareness of that role in his address to last week’s conference. What his reference to the matter has done is, first, to remind the government of its responsibility to protect the workers; secondly, it sends a signal that the union regards the matter as an important one and, thirdly, it seeks, we assume, to communicate the union’s view that the safety and health of employees of the state is one of the many facets of conditions of service that needs to be addressed as part the ensuing public service reform process.
