While maintaining that his government is committed to improving the lives of all workers, President Irfaan Ali yesterday suggested that recent protests staged by frontline health care workers over demands for better wages and salaries and conditions were being instigated by persons seeking to exploit current circumstances.
Over the past week, workers from the West Demerara Regional Hos-pital (WRDH), the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) and the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) staged demonstrations to press their demands for frontline workers who are managing the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These demands range from better and more personal protective equipment to payment of overtime and risk allowances. Some have even threatened strike action.
“The law speaks very clearly about essential workers and how they are expected to behave and act,” Ali said during a visit to the proposed site of the new Demerara River Bridge, after he was asked by Sunday Stabroek to comment on the protests and the demands by the workers.
“What I have seen in this strike is a few actors. I have a strong monitoring team looking at the narrative being built on social media and there are some strong, independent actors looking to exploit the circumstances,” he added.
Ali noted that in the recently approved emergency budget, the government allocated $150 million for frontline workers as well as the fact that the Ministry of Health has indicated that the issues nurses and doctors raised are under active consideration.
At the same time, he said there are a lot of other factors to be considered.
Asked specifically if he felt anyone of the workers requests were unreasonable, the president said that in at least one case they have made a request that is “outside of the scope of what the country can afford”. He added that government could not offer nurses duty-free concessions and not make the same provision for every other category of workers. “You have to look at the broad spectrum—what you do for one category you have to do for all,” Ali argued.
He, however, said his government will be taking steps to improve the quality of life of frontline workers through the provision of housing assistance and better benefits over the course of his five-year term, while adding that some stand to benefit already from measures included in the current budget.
Ali also argued that his government’s $5 billion investment in the sugar industry cannot be used by the health workers to justify their demands. “You can physically see the socioeconomic impact of the closure of the estates in those communities. I can’t apologise for bringing back those jobs, creating those jobs,” Ali said.
He also asked why the health care workers were not in solidarity with those affected by the closure of the estates under the former APNU+AFC administration.
“Where was the solidarity when more than 7,000 sugar workers were sent home? What was the situation then? Where was the solidarity when 1,000 bauxite workers lost their jobs… There was no socio-economic analysis of the impact of the closure of the estates. We are forgetting that. We are missing that. We don’t want to answer that question anymore,” he stressed.
Ali also defended a government budgetary allocation of $95 million for new vehicles, while clarifying that these vehicles would not be only for the President, Vice President and the Prime Minister.
According to him, the sum covers the purchase of vehicles to allow technical workers and ministers to get their jobs done.
On Friday, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon criticised government’s failure to include an increase in salaries for public servants in the budget, while saying that Ali’s administration was engaging in wasteful spending.
He told a news conference that the APNU+AFC was appalled by the “callous” treatment of ordinary Guyanese by the PPP, particularly public servants “our health care workers, our teachers and our joint services.”
The Opposition Leader said that APNU+AFC believes that a zero increase in salary for public servants is an insult.
Calling out the government for having promised a 50 per cent salary increase while on the campaign trail, Harmon said their promises are hollow as they have nothing for public servants “while the PPP is splurging an extravagant $95 million, unnecessarily, on new high-end luxury vehicles.”
Aggravate
Many of the striking workers have signalled that they are prepared to continue protesting and, if necessary, strike, until their concerns are addressed.
But Minister of Public Service Sonia Parag on Friday said that essential workers must first take certain steps, including filing an official complaint, before protesting.
Just two days earlier, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health Collette Adams indicated to all health workers that “the Ministry takes these unauthorised industrial actions seriously.”
“Members of staff who have engaged in such activity will be dealt with according to the Public Service rules and regulations,” Adams explained in a circular sent to all Regional Health Officers (RHO) last Wednesday.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) took a firmer stance and yesterday as it accused the frontline workers of “resorting to measures that can only aggravate [the pandemic] and place additional challenges on our fragile public health system.”
According to a statement from the hospital, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which represents public health workers, sanctioned the protest before “exhausting proper industrial relations practices and procedures” set out in the Public Utilities Undertaking and Public Health Service Act.
The law being referenced is the Essential Services Arbitration Act, which states at Section 12 that an essential worker shall not take part in a strike in connection with any trade dispute unless the dispute has been reported to the Minister by an organization representing the workers or if one month has elapsed since the date of the report; and the dispute has not during that time been referred by the Minister for settlement in accordance with that section.
Section 19 of the law further explains that every person who contravenes or fails to comply with Section 12 commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $30,000 and imprisonment for two months. “If the offence is a continuing one, a further fine not exceeding $1000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues,” the Section concludes.
The GPHC also dismissed claims by the workers that they were not provided with adequate PPE and that they were asked to work in challenging circumstances without risk allowance.
It said protecting its staff as this pandemic evolves remains its top priority and consequently it continues to provide appropriate PPE. The hospital also added that it has and continues to provide risk allowances to staff members in accordance with the provisions catered for in Public Service Circular NO PS: 20/19.
“We intend to continue to provide those provisions for all workers at the GPHC, in accordance with the stipulated regulation. While, we remain committed to timely and constructive engagements to consider the requests of our health care workers we strongly advise them to refrain from accepting inappropriate advice and abandoning their duties to support further illegal protest action until every avenue provided for in the relevant legislation is exhausted,” the hospital concluded.
