The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has said that it finds “absurd” that the government’s proposed differentiated wage increases is its “final offer” as allowances and de-bunching are still unaddressed.
In a press release yesterday, the GPSU explained that it “had engaged the Government of Guyana in the wages, salaries and allowances negotiation with a clear mandate that the engagement should focus on the goals of a living wage for Public Servants, the resolution of the de-bunching issue within scales and addressing the matter of the adequacy of allowances paid to public officers. Objectives…that wholly inform the Union’s negotiating approach in its engagement.”
It further noted that while the government’s negotiating team has made several increasing offers for salary increases “neither the issue of de-bunching nor allowances which are a substantive part of these negotiations have been addressed, even remotely by the government’s delegation.”
“During the initial period of the negotiations the government’s negotiating team made two offers commencing at the base at 5.5%. They then increased that by .5% to 6%. The Union’s negotiating team rejected both proposals,” the release said. It added that the union’s counter proposal included a three- year agreement which would see an increase of $7,500 and 25% in the first year, 47,000 and 20% in the second year and $9,000 and 20% in year three.
This proposal also called for workers to be paid in respect of each of years 1 to 3, and an additional increase to cover the inflation as determined by the Bureau of Statistics.
Issues of de-bunching, appraisals and allowances were similarly addressed in the proposal which was countered by government with a proposal deemed its “final offer”
“The Government’s negotiating team presented a documented offer increasing its base proposal from 6% to 10%. Afterwards, the Government’s negotiating team declared that to be its final offer. At that stage the Union stated that it would take the 10% offer along with a report on the negotiations up to that time to its General Council, its second highest constitutional forum before responding to government’s offer. Further, it is the intention of the Union to update its general membership on the negotiations,” the release said, before concluding that “a pronouncement on the Government’s proposal will be made by the Union’s General Council at a meeting to be convened no later than Friday September 2, 2016. The pronouncement of the General Council will be communicated to the members, the Government of Guyana and the general public.”
The Government on Wednesday issued a release of its “final offer” for differentiated wage increases for public servants ranging from 10% at the lowest scale to 1% at the highest.
This offer falls far below the GPSU initial demand of a 40% across-the-board hike which it later amended to 25%.
The government release said that it was pointed out to the GPSU that the government’s final offer for wages and salaries increases for public servants had taken into consideration the current socio-economic environment; the difficulty in agreeing to increases that would entail having to mobilise additional revenue and the unsustainability of any further addition to its offer with regard to the current and future budgets. The GPSU release yesterday also said that the government failed to provide them with requested information on several aspects of government’s revenues and expenditures.
