Mayor Ubraj Narine yesterday announced that city council workers will receive increases in their wages and salaries both for last year and the new year.
At a press conference yesterday held at his office, Narine said increases of 5% for 2021, which will be retroactive, and 5% for 2022 had been agreed to by the council, for all categories of staff. “So the total staff will receive a 5% salary increase from 2021 retroactive January and going forward a next 5% from January 2022, so in all they will receive 10% in salary increase,” he said.
According to the mayor, over 600 Mayor and City Council staffers will be benefiting from the increase, which was proposed by the city’s Finance Committee and approved by the Council. He said a payout would be made by January 15.
This newspaper later attempted to reach the mayor to confirm whether the workers’ union had agreed to the increase but calls to his phone went unanswered.
When asked at the press conference how the cash-strapped council would fund the increase, Narine noted that it will be from the normal revenues along with the revenue accrued from the recently launched amnesty on rates. The amnesty policy was implemented December of last year and will run up until March of this year.
Meanwhile, with the City Council owing large amounts to a number of agencies, including the National Insurance Scheme, and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Mayor was asked if its debts were paid off. In response, Narine said the amount was still outstanding. He, however, added that such a situation can be easily resolved since the GRA also owes the council. “For example, on Lamaha, we know for a fact that GRA moved their office there of recent. Before they had moved there, they used the land as a parking lot. GRA never paid this council a dime,” Narine said as he opined that a simple solution can be reached since both sides are at fault.
