Government is waiting on the report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the public service before commencing negotiations for wage increases with the unions representing public service workers, President David Granger says.
“We’re waiting on the report of the Lutchman Commission. I don’t know when that will be presented but we felt it would be imprudent to proceed without the benefit of the advice of that commission,” Granger told reporters yesterday.
The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) earlier this week urged government to indicate its readiness to commence negotiations and said the CoI report should not obstruct other essential and urgent matters.
Yesterday, Granger emphasised that the normal bargaining process between the Ministry of Finance and the union will be followed but made it clear that this will not be done in the absence of the CoI report.
Professor Harold Lutchman is the chairman of the CoI which wrapped up its work several weeks ago. The commission’s mandate, established by its terms of reference states that it will, “Inquire into, report on, and make recommendations on the role, functions, recruitment, training, remuneration, conditions of service and other matters pertaining to personnel employed in the Guyana Public Service.”
It will also determine what measures should be taken to improve the efficiency of the public service in the discharge of their duties to the general public and review the methodology used in classification and recruitment of those workers.
Further, the CoI will examine the principles on which salaries and wages of public servants should be fixed specifically; the mechanism for the determination of wages and salaries, the level of consistency between the salaries and the various levels of public servants and the basis on which remuneration for various levels of public servants is determined.
The other two commissioners are Sandra Jones and Samuel Goolsarran.
Last week, the GPSU wrote Granger over what it said was the “protracted delay” in the start of wage negotiations and over recent statements made by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan. Jordan had said that public service workers should not expect big salary increases and this alarmed the union which expressed concern that his remarks may prejudice negotiations on wage increases and dubbed it inappropriate.
Subsequently, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis said the same measure used to pay Cabinet ministers and members of parliament must apply to remaining government workers.
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.
