The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday requested conciliation to resolve the deadlock in its negotiations with the government on wages and salaries for public servants.
At an Executive Council meeting at the union’s headquarters, a decision was taken to inform Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle, via letter, that a deadlock had been reached in negotiations and to request conciliation as provided for in the agreement with government for the avoidance and settlement of disputes.
The agreement specifically states that if the union and ministry, represented by its Permanent Secretary, are unable to settle any grievances, the process shall proceed to the fifth stage of the grievance process, where either party within 14 days refers the matter to the Ministry of Labour for conciliation, failing which the process proceeds to compulsory arbitration.
In 1999, a crippling public service strike, which lasted almost two months, was finally settled via arbitration.
Asked why the union chose to pursue the route of conciliation via the Ministry of Social Protection rather than arbitration, acting GPSU General Secretary Kempton Alexander told Stabroek News that the Executive Council had decided to respect the professionalism of the Labour Department rather than act under a perception that a conflict of interest would affect its objectivity.
The letter to Ogle, which was sent yesterday, notes that the negotiation begun between GPSU and the government on June 22nd, 2016 in relation to increases in wages, salaries and allowances and reached an impasse on Wednesday September 14th, 2016, when government negotiators maintained that their offer, which runs counter to that proposed by the union, was a final position on wages and salaries.
As a consequence, the Executive Council of the GPSU formally requested that the Chief Labour, Occupational Safety and Health Officer, Ministry of Social Protection, conciliate in the matter while advising that consideration be given to an arrangement agreed to in addressing a similar situation in June, 1999.
After two months of negotiations with GPSU, the government’s negotiating team announced, on August 24th, that its final offer to the union was differentiated wage increases for public servants ranging from 10% at the lowest scale to 1% at the highest.
The union, which had adjusted its initial demand of a 40% across-the-board raise to 25%, subsequently rejected the offer.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued yesterday, the GPSU reiterated that the government’s “final offer” is unreasonable and unacceptable and.
It added that the Executive Council of the GPSU has expressed its serious concern over the seeming insensitivity and absence of a sense of urgency on the part of the government in dealing with the various other outstanding issues associated with public servants’ emoluments, including de-bunching, increments and allowances. On the latter, the union said the Executive Council took a decision that the Government of Guyana be written to with regard to these matters with a view to having them dealt with expeditiously.
The GPSU added that the Executive Council and the union are also concerned that the government appears to be reneging on its commitment to have separate negotiations for wages, salaries and allowance for semi-autonomous agencies. “This position is based on information reaching the Union that what is being implemented in the Public Service is also being applied in semi-autonomous agencies,” it noted.
Despite the union’s rejection of the final offer, government public servants will received the differentiated increases, inclusive of payment retroactive to January, as part of their October salaries.
Though the union maintains that its demand for a 25% increase is both feasible and sustainable, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan last week claimed that anything more than its final offer is unsustainable. “Every increase we make must be sustained for the next year and the next year… sustained payments that have implications for allowances and pensions have to come from growth in revenues that can be sustained,” Jordan had said.
