Government on Wednes-day announced a series of wage and salary increases for the Public Service but the total cost to the treasury remains unclear and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has claimed that the coalition government is planning to dismiss 20,000 workers to make the increase sustainable.
During an address to the Nation on Wednesday President David Granger announced that public servants, including teachers, nurses and doctors, and members of the defence, police and security services, will receive permanent, tax-free increases in wages – 8.5% to 9% – and hefty allowances this year all of which will be retroactive to January 1st 2019.
Speaking on the increases Jagdeo said they are nothing more than “routine increases”.
He said that is was unusual for the President to make such an announcement noting that the normal course of action is for the Minister of Finance to announce salary increases,
“These are routine salary increases because they were budgeted for in November last year. It’s not like the money just came into the budget,” he said adding, that “this is nothing new. It was budgeted since last year [so] they should get their money.”
The former President went on to claim that the APNU+AFC government intends to downsize the public sector and fire several workers so as to make the public sector increases sustainable.
”It is interesting that within the last week Minister Jordan makes two speeches talking about salary increases but then talking about the need to downsize the public sector by 15,000 t0 20,000…. I have some information that they plan to make some of these sustainable [by] downsizing the public sector by 15,000 to 20,000,” Jagdeo claimed.
He declared that it was “fortunate” that the current government would not be in place to implement such a measure which he believes was a recommendation from the International Monetary Fund.
He went on to claim that despite a significant increase in pay the joint services are still worse off than in 2014 because they are not receiving the end-of-year bonus previously offered by the PPP/C.
Stabroek News reached out to Minister Jordan for a response to the accusations made by the Opposition Leader but was told that he was in a meeting and unable to respond to questions.
Efforts to source the total monies budgeted for the announced increases were similarly futile.
Speaking at a post-cabinet press briefing yesterday, the Director General in the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon also stressed that the sums to be paid were allocated in the 2019 budget and therefore have to be spent before the end of the year.
He went on to claim that the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) was involved in the process for its allocation.
“There was discussion with the union before these figures were put in there [the budget],” he told reporters adding that government has been in “ongoing” engagement with union representative.
Last Friday the GPSU had complained that they were “fed up with arbitrary impositions,”
Noting that the increases which have taken place since 2015 have been done without the GPSU’s input, Yarde told members of the media that the GPSU had been working together with the government to come to a consensus on the issue of salaries for public servants since May of this year, when it was invited to a meeting with President Granger.
The GPSU said it was asked to keep the meeting confidential until a decision was made, at which point a joint announcement could be made. He also shared that it was agreed that a joint committee would be set up to address wages and salaries.
A memorandum of agreement followed on June 14th, after which there was no development, he shared.
“After our exchange of a memorandum of agreement on the 14th of June, all we were being acquainted with was what was in the press,” Yarde said.
He further explained that the union has now concluded that “that approach seems to have been scrapped since you’re hearing that the minister arbitrarily will make an announcement on increases,” Yarde lamented, threatening that “We would wish to state that we will respond to any arbitrary increase in a most vigorous manner”.
During his address, the President said that public servants’ minimum wage will increase by 9 percent from the current $64,220 to $70,000. Sweepers/cleaners will also be receiving the new minimum wage.
Overall, the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government has increased the minimum wage by 77 percent since taking office in 2015, when the wage stood at $39,540.
Meanwhile, public servants earning between $100,000 and under $1 million will receive an 8.5 percent increase, while those earning below $100,000 will receive a 9 percent increase in their salaries.
Finally, public servants earning $64,220 and below will receive an additional $69,336 in their December pay cheque.
Notably public servants who received the old minimum wage of $64,220 will benefit from both the 9 percent increase in the minimum wage, and the additional $69,336 in excess of their base salaries.
In the case of allowances, station allowances for public servants receiving same will be increased by over 260 percent from $2,800 to $10,000, while hinterland allowances will be increased by between 100 percent and 600 percent, from between $4000 and $12,000 to $24,000, depending on the class of public servant.
Further, risk allowances will be increased by 900 percent from $500 to $5000, while the uniform allowance for health sector workers will be increased from $13,000 and $22,135 to $15,000 and $30,000.
Finally, the President also said that on-call allowances for doctors will also be increased, although he did not say by how much.
