Public service workers should not expect big salary increases, according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan and the main public sector union yesterday expressed concern that his remarks may prejudice negotiations on wage increases and said it was inappropriate.
“This is not telling tales out of school but I told the unions when I met them during the budget consultations, we have to be careful when it comes to wages and expectations of wages because our economy is now coming out of the throes of a slowdown,” Jordan told a press conference on Wednesday.
Critics have said that the government’s decision last year to award Cabinet ministers a 50% pay hike would likely trigger demands from other sectors for similar increases. The 50% pay hike came in for searing criticism for months.
While public servants will receive an increase in salaries before the country’s next budget is presented, Jordan said Guyana has been warned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor its spending and has been heeding the advice. “We have been urged to keep a close look at our current spending. This also is what we have ourselves been keeping a close eye on so what the Fund has done is more or less re-emphasise, more or less, what we have been doing. There is no way we can be spending out of control given the scenarios that we have as it relates to revenues and how we do mobilise our resources,” he said.
Jordan’s message to public servants is to be understanding that government cannot at this time afford hefty increases. “As an economist and the Minister of Finance, I can only say that I agree with the IMF on this particular front and from (the) time I came in, I have been advising caution as it relates to wage increases and meeting exaggerated demands for wage increases. Even in good times, paying exaggerated salaries have serious short and long term impacts,” he said.
“Trinidad right now is feeling the effects of paying salaries that might appear at the time to be sustainable but given our economies where we are in the vagaries of the international market for our products, when that price dramatically falls you are left hanging so to speak. You are then left with two options: cuts salaries which is a no no or cut employment. So to avoid that kind of scenario one always has to be extremely careful and prudent when matters to do with wage increases are involved,” he added.
Considerable disquiet
Yesterday, the Guyana Public Service Union in a statement said that it views with “considerable disquiet” the “exaggerated salaries” remark attributed to Jordan.
“If it is the Minister’s right, as an individual and in whatever capacity, to hold a view on the issue of salary increases, it is, to say the least, altogether inappropriate for him to publicly pronounce in the manner that he did in the immediate aftermath of a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as though he were fulfilling an expectation,” the union declared.
It pointed to what it said was a “suggestion” by the IMF in a March 7, 2016 statement appearing on its website about “moderating the growth of wages…”
According to the statement, the union, “shudders to think that the Minister – whether on his own volition or acting on some other directive – might be seeking the infuse an element of unhealthy prejudice into the negotiations with the GPSU on a salary increase for public servants ahead of the start of these negotiations.”
The GPSU said that what it finds particularly disconcerting, is that, reportedly in response to a question regarding negotiations for a pay increase for public servants, Jordan allegedly said “I don’t know about room to negotiate…we will negotiate a salary increase that is sustainable and that we can meet with projected growth.”
The union said in its view, these are not the words of an individual who is amenable to negotiations, but one who comes to the table with preconditions that taint the negotiating environment long before the discourse even begins.
“It is not the opinion of the GPSU that the remarks attributed to Mr Jordan are consistent with what we understand to be the high premium which His Excellency the President has publicly placed on the importance of the public service as a critical institution in the envisaged development of Guyana. Indeed, and regrettably so, in the union’s view, what the Minister had to say bears an uncanny resemblance of the dismissive posture which the previous political administration was customarily inclined to take in its dealings with public servants,” the statement said.
According to the statement, if the GPSU is not, at this stage, inclined to adjust its view that the Granger administration is committed to its oft-repeated undertaking to enhance the well-being of public servants in order to better equip them to serve the nation, the union would be comforted by an official public assurance that the sentiments attributed to Jordan are not reflective of a collective official disposition.
“Anything less, we believe, could have the effect of creating an unwholesome environment ahead of the much-anticipated negotiations on a meaningful increase in wages and salaries for public servants,” the GPSU declared.
The statement said that it is the view of the GPSU that public servants are entitled to urgent assurances that the ensuing developments are not about to take it down a path of bad faith as the time for negotiating salary increases approaches.
