GPSU disappointed with Ali’s failure to conduct wages, salary negotiations

Health workers during a protest last year (Sta-broek News file photo)

A week after President Irfaan Ali announced plans for wages and salary hikes for public servants, The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has criticised his failure to commit to legally required negotiations with the body.

“There has been no compliance to commence negotiations for the increases in wages, salaries and allowances for Public Servants for the years 2020 and 2021,” the union said in a release on Monday, while lamenting that it has been more than a year since the government has refused to meet and commence the negotiations with the GPSU, the workers’ representative, even though the cost of living has increased massively. 

The statement was a response to the announcement by Ali that the government would be providing public servants a retroactive salary increase even as he failed to acknowledge several correspondence from the union.