Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh yesterday announced a 7 percent salary increase for public servants and government pensioners which was swiftly criticised by the GPSU which called for its members to work to rule.
“….I am pleased to announce now that your Government will be paying an across-the-board increase of seven per cent to public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, constitutional office holders, as well as government pensioners,” Singh said during an address to the nation yesterday afternoon.
The increase which will not be tax free will be retroactive to January 1, 2021 and will be paid with salaries for the month of December. The announcement reflects the customary yearend imposition on public servants as there had been no collective bargaining with its union, the GPSU.
“Work will start immediately to ensure that it is processed and paid to eligible employees together with their December salary and in time for the festive Christmas season,” Singh assured.
Special payout
In addition, Singh also announced that frontline workers in the health sector are expected to benefit from a $400M special 2021 payout.
“Your Government has set aside an amount of $400 million for a special 2021 payout to be made to frontline workers in the health sector who have continued to face extenuating circumstances in the daily discharge of their duties, as our country and the world continue to battle the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he disclosed.
According to Singh, the payout will be done before the end of the year and details about the process will be announced “shortly”.
The Government had included several measures in its 2020 Emergency Budget which was aimed at bringing relief to public servants and other Guyanese including the allocation of $150M to frontline workers in the Public Service.
Further, he said from next year, Government will be working to reduce the “anomalies and disparities” among the wages and salaries of workers with similar qualifications within the public sector.
“Your Government has recognised the existence of a number of anomalies and disparities across positions within the public service salary scales, as a result of which there are marked inconsistencies across the pay received by persons holding similar qualifications but occupying different posts depending on the agency in which they work, the post to which they are appointed, and the salary scale in which their post is classified,” he explained.
The 2022 Budget, Singh said includes provisions for this.
“Your Government will be taking steps next year to reduce these inconsistencies, by making suitable adjustments to salaries in order to improve the parity and consistency with which persons with comparable qualifications are paid,” he added.
Earlier in the year, President Irfaan Ali had promised that public servants would be receiving a retroactive increase in wages and salaries before the year ends.
Since the PPP/C Government assumed office in August 2020, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has made several calls for the start of negotiations on wages and salaries.
The increase was announced without their involvement.
Vice President of the GPSU, Dawn Gardener had previously told Stabroek News that she hopes that the increases being promised by the president will be negotiated with the union.
Gardener had said she would personally condemn the increases if they are granted without a meeting being held with the union for negotiation.
“… It’s a breach and as the president he should not be breaching the laws… neither the legally binding agreement, which states that you must negotiate with the workers’ representative — which is the Guyana Public Service Union — for the increase in wages and salaries and other working conditions,” she explained.
She had said that she hoped that the government would respect the rule of law, the legally binding agreement and have negotiations with the union. “Not the president just promising to have an increase in salary before the end of the year,” Gardener stated.
“Meagre 7%”
In a statement issued last night, the GPSU renewed its call for the Government to meet urgently for discussions on increases for wages, salaries and allowances.
“The imposition of the 7% has been arbitrarily imposed and in conflict with the government’s legal obligation to negotiate these outcomes and the elections commitment to be inclusive and genuine in the interest of all citizens. The Government frustrated all efforts to sit professionally and decently to deal with increases in wages and salaries, while at the same time attempting to undermine Unions, compromise workers’ rights and make them vulnerable, while squandering public resources on political gimmicks, that made no impact on the pain and suffering of the masses,” the statement said.
The union further called on public servants to reject the manner “the way they are being abused” by the Government. “This is a time for all workers in and out of the Public Service to unite and be prepared to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to put an end to this uncaring unconscionable, ruthless and treatment and dishonesty,” GPSU urged.
Public servants, the statement said worked “tirelessly” throughout 2020 without any rewards or increases.
In 2021, it added that they continued to work throughout the year although cost of living “accelerated and skyrocketed”.
“There were no measures to cushion the salary drought, except for a meagre one-off payment of $25,000 to some workers at the end of 2020. Now that the end of the year (2021) is approaching, a meagre 7% annual increase, which no doubt would be swallowed up by some basic requirements at this time of the year and/or past debts, is dangled in the face of the hapless workforce that had to endure on starvation wages and salaries for two consecutive years,” the statement said.
GPSU called out the Government for their failure to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, while disregarding legally binding collective agreements and workers’ rights that encompasses legitimate, urgent and necessary working class matters.
“Such was the calculated and wicked display of disrespect and disregard that the PPP/C regime has foisted upon the hard-working Public Service workforce, in and out of uniform,” the statement further noted.,
The union said that it does not recognise the “baseless imposition”, given the “methodology and underlying contempt” that the Government has shown.
“Workers have been skipping meals and have been looking forward to being paid a living wage retroactively. The hand out will no doubt be taxed and thereafter would move from ‘hand to mouth’ of workers. Why should the State maintain its workforce as enslaved labour that has no basis upon which to plan a future?” the union questioned.
