When Cheddi Jagan came to office in October 1992 he did a most unusual thing for the working people in the public service. In April 1993, he increased the minimum wage by some 46% and backdated it to nine months before he came to office!
There are suggestions in the public domain (A simple explanation of the Ministers’ salary increase, KN 18/10/2015) that on coming to office, Jagan somewhat surreptitiously gave large salary increases to his ministers.
I know Cheddi Jagan sufficiently well to know that hell would have had to freeze over and pigs fly before he would have even considered giving ministers the large increases the current regime has given itself without giving at least commensurate increases to the working people in his employ. Furthermore, quite apart from the fact that all whom I have contacted have no recollection of such unusual payments and ministerial increases have to be gazetted and placed in parliament, as I shall show below, the political context of the time did not allow for any such clandestine maneuverings.
After nearly three decades in opposition, Jagan came to government in October 1992, when the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), introduced by President Desmond Hoyte, was at its apogee. In relation to salaries, government employees had been given little relief from the ravages of the ERP: inflation was on a downward trajectory (94% in 1989, 80% in 1990, 70% in 1991, 14.2% in 1992 and 7.7% in 1993), but although it was still above 14% in 1991, the PNC government only increased public servants’ wages by 10% (Jeffrey, Henry B. (2015) Political and Ethnic Discrimination in Guyana. London: Gateway; Kindle).
Almost immediately, by a circular dated 13th April 1993, the Jagan government raised the minimum wage that was $131.49 per day in 1992 to $174.17 per day as from 1st July 1992 and to $191 from 1st January, 1993 – some 46%. Indeed, during Jagan’s period in office the minimum wage rose by 180% from $131.49 per day in 1992 to some $370 per day in 1997, the year Cheddi died.
As I recall, increases for ministers at that period were very much related to these general increases, and as stated above, quite apart from Jagan’s mean and lean philosophy, the industrial environment just would not have allowed clandestine increases in ministerial pay.
In the years between 1980 and 1989, money wages increased from $11.55 per day to $35.89 per day. However, according to the trade unions in the sector, led by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), taking the $4.00 a day that was paid in 1970 as the base, real wages, which were $4.38 a day in 1980 had been reduced to $1.49 in 1989 and to only $0.85 by the end of 1990, but rose to $1.09 in 92, $1.44 in 1993 and 2.48 in 1998 (Ibid.).
Under Cheddi Jagan’s PPP/C real wages of the public servant were increasing but the trade unions considered the upward movement insufficient to make up for the historic debt and so were up in arms. ‘The problem with the GPSU in the negotiations with the PPP/Civic Administration is the Administration seems only willing to discuss salary lost through inflation, no doubt inferring that what transpired prior to 1992 is not of their concern. As the GPSU has so often informed the Administration, government is ‘continuous’ and so are laws, regulations, etc, irrespective of which administration enacted them, unless of course, they are repealed’ (Ibid.).
Thus, notwithstanding the increases stated above, months into the Jagan regime, the unions called strikes between 15th and 17th September, 1993 and 11th to 20th May 1994 to press the case for real wages equivalent to those of 1980.
Then as now the government position was that it was in no position to pay such huge salary increases and I am afraid that this will be the stance of the current government for some time to come. Thus, recently, addressing the 21st Biennial Delegates’ Conference of the GPSU, Mr. Patrick Yarde made an observation, the backdrop of which may be useful for this new regime and the members and officers of the union to remember if they are serious about ending what Yarde referred to as ‘the days of the impoverished public servants’ in and equitable and timely manner (‘Fresh start’ GPSU wants cops, soldiers unionized. SN 1/10/2015).
As Mr. Yarde recalled, Cheddi Jagan established a bipartisan committee ‘To consider whether the Government of Guyana has the capacity to improve the wages and salaries of public servants at present and the ways and means of doing so.’ Some of the members of that committee are still major players today. It consisted of Shaik Baksh (chairman), Winston Jordan, David King, Gobin Ganga, John Seeram, June Ward, Patrick Yarde, Leslie Melville, Clive Thomas, Christopher Ram, Lancelot Baptiste and Earl Welch.
Among other things, the committee recommended that employees on the lowest band be given an increase of 25% and those on the highest 15%, provided that the total payout to public servants did not exceed the sum of $333.5 million. It also recommended that collective bargaining be restored and that the government and the union should urgently meet to discuss a wages policy that would form a framework for future wages negotiations.
As Yarde correctly stated, the report of the committee ‘died when Dr. Jagan died’ and a strike erupted in 1999 that lasted for 56 days and ended in an arbitration tribunal, chaired by Dr. Aubrey Armstrong, which, among other things, gave the workers 31.06% for 1999 and 26.66% for 2000.
If my memory is correct, what is interesting here is that the government refused to give the Armstrong increases to ministers and parliamentarians, arguing that if its position was that it could not afford the large increases for the country, as a matter of public morality it should not take them for itself. Cheddi Jagan had stated that ministers should be paid $1 more than permanent secretaries but they were now getting much less. Not without much dissension in ministerial ranks, it was not until some two years after that proportionate increases were made in ministerial salaries.
I have written elsewhere that, ‘after the public service strike of 1999 and particularly after the resignation of Ms. Janet Jagan, the regime took the decision to attempt to severely weaken, if not destroy, the GPSU. The regime’s refusal to have proper collective bargaining with public sector unions was the first major rejection of the ethos of Cheddi Jagan, but this kind of moral appeal to legacy is at best only soothing’ (op.cit.).
Government of course is ‘continuous’ and the historic claim, which I doubt was ever properly resolved, coupled with the tendency of the post-Jagan PPP/C government to impose increases that barely covered inflation must mean that much is now expected from the current regime. Apart from the usual resort to conciliation and arbitration, Cheddi Jagan’s approach suggests a more collegial manner of dealing with income disputes, particularly in the public sector.
