In light of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s revelation that the anticipated 8,000 temporary workers will be paid $40,000 for ten days of work per month, the Opposition is pressing even harder for information relating to the programme.
In March, Jagdeo announced that the government will be creating some 8,000 temporary jobs across the country to assist persons to cope with the rising cost of living. Ever since, he has been touring the country announcing specific numbers of jobs for various regions.
On April 11, he announced 3,000 temporary jobs for Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), April 27 saw the promise of 1,000 jobs in (Mahaica-Berbice), early May the people of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) were assured of the creation of 800 such jobs, and on Tuesday contracts were signed for 2,000 jobs in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
The Department of Public Information (DPI), on May 28, reported that Jagdeo officially launched the government’s part-time jobs initiative in Region 10. According to the report, Jagdeo told the residents that the programme forms part of the government’s plan to subsidise household income in light of the rising cost of living.
“So it’s going to be about 8,000 to 10,000 of our people hired through this initiative. They will get $40,000 a month for 10 days of work.
“It’s not free money, you have to work, but you don’t have to go into fields etc. Because we need a lot of people to assist in the hospitals. We need some persons in the libraries in our schools. We can place people in different agencies so they are doing productive work,” DPI quoted Jagdeo as saying.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Shadow Minister of Local Government Ganesh Mahipaul called on the government to provide more information as to the nature of the jobs as well as its impact on the public service.
“…it is reported that persons will be paid $40,000 for 10 days of work and they will be employed in the public sector. Basically in schools, in hospitals, in the regional administrations across the 10 administrative regions, in the education department, in the various other programs that fall within the regional administration…you don’t know what is the criteria for employment, you don’t know what are the qualifications in terms of the different jobs he’s [Jagdeo] going to fill, and then you are going to just place it as temporary jobs but give a one year contract to the person?” Mahipaul questioned.
“We don’t know who you’re going to put the work in the hospitals. We don’t know what section of the hospital if there is specific training and so on that is required for you to deliver health services to the people of Guyana. We don’t know who you’re going to put in the school system to deal with our children. If they are properly qualified enough to handle our children and to you know, to interact with our children. We don’t know what kind of people you’re going to put in the administrative section of our region. These are major concerns and nothing is wrong with the job but we want to know the details so that we will be able to better draw a conclusion on this project,” he added.
Mahipaul reiterated that the Opposition has no problems with persons being employed but questioned the reasoning behind Jagdeo’s latest announcement. He explained that there are workers in the public service that work for an entire month and take home minimum wage while paying taxes and NIS contributions but it is unclear if the same will be applied to the temporary workers that are scheduled to earn more than half of the minimum wage for just 10 days of work per month.
“…$40,000 [for] 10 days per month worries you because the [existing] employees of the public sector, they have to give their commitment in terms of their taxes that they have to pay [PAYE] and NIS contribution [and] they have to commit themselves from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm and they have to do the job. They were doing the job in these very areas that Jagdeo seem to believe was understaffed [so now] the question is, were they compensated for doing the work when they were doing it as the permanent staff?” Mahipaul further questioned.
“Another thing that worries me is across the country, in all 10 Administrative Regions, there are a number of vacancies that exists within the public sector. Each one of these Regions have an authorized staffing detail that permits them to employ a quota of employees as was approved by the budget. The most recent being budget 2022 and if these vacancies exist, one would have thought that the proper thing to do is to employ people so that they can have job security. They can contribute back into our country by way of paying taxes so that you can continue to build your country,” he added.
He added that even in the absence of a Public Service Commission, the regional vacancies can be filled since the job descriptions are available and persons can be employed through the Public Service Ministry’s contract programme. He said that this move would ensure job security for the workers while taking the load off of the overworked public servants.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton said that the temporary jobs show that the government has failed to craft a plan to deal with high unemployment and create permanent employment for Guyanese.
