The GPSU yesterday launched a scathing attack on the two-year-old Ali administration for ignoring collective bargaining and the union also charged that there was discrimination in the allocation of resources across the country.
With its second anniversary in office approaching, the PPP/C government has provided no answer as to why it is yet to enter collective bargaining for public servants with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
Yesterday at a press conference, the GPSU signalled that legal action over the matter was in the works.
“…..The GPSU has sought legal advice on the PPP/C Government’s continued disregard for the Rule of Law including the Constitution of Guyana and its obligations to ILO Conventions ratified by the Parliament of Guyana and are inforce, that arrangements are being made to challenge Government’s obstinacy in the Courts of Law of which GPSU has its trust and confidence, hoping that justice would be served, soonest,” GPSU President Patrick Yarde said.
Yarde said the documents were already signed and submitted to GPSU attorneys who assured that the court action would be filed yesterday. “We are going through this process. We believe we have the membership and the clout to bring about this correction. We did it in 1999 and we did it several times before but in this COVID environment we would not subject our members’ health to be at risk so we are resorting to the court,” Yarde said.
While he refused to divulge details, Yarde said should the court action be ignored, the GPSU will “resort to other means”.
“If the Government feel that they can act in conflict with any court order well then we have will have resort to other means….In modern society, if the court issues an order, no one, absolutely no one is above the rule of law,” he said.
In the past, the PPP/Government has made unilateral increase in public servants’ salaries by around 5% annually without collective bargaining with the GPSU and other unions. Despite promises that it would restore collective bargaining, the APNU+AFC government of 2015 to 2020 also imposed unilateral increases.
Section 23(1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act of 1997 states “Where a trade union obtains a certificate of recognition for workers comprised in a bargaining unit in accordance with this Part, the employer shall recognize the union, and the union and the employer shall bargain in good faith and enter into negotiation with each other for the purpose of collective bargaining.”
Yarde yesterday told the media that it is clear that “political machinations” are afoot of destabilize the public service.
With the rising cost of living and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said public servants continue to face financial burdens. “Amidst spiraling price increases, Government has ignored its responsibilities to public servants while embarking on costly political excursions….It has also committed the public coffers to billions of dollars in grants, aid and other financial benefits for what appears to be carefully chosen segments of the population, while allowing larger masses of the population to suffer in anguish from the onslaught of the constantly rising prices,” he said.
Apart from offering a “miniscule” $25,000 cash grant in 2020 and a “paltry” award of a taxable 7% across the board increase a year after, Yarde said the Government did nothing to alleviate the “pains and sufferings” of its workforce.
He further noted that the 2022 budget did not include any provisions for public servants neither does the recently tabled $44.7B supplementary budget.
“We have looked and it and looked at it again. I ain’t see anything about salary increases for public servants…that they went to Parliament for…..It is not the end of July 2022, twenty four months after being sworn into office and seven months into a new financial year, without any movement towards meeting Government’s responsibilities and obligations under legally binding Collective Labour Agreements, Labour Laws, ILO conventions and workers rights enshrined in the constitution,” he added.
Guyana is a signatory to the ILO conventions on settling labour disputes and the GPSU has frequently accused the government of flouting both the law and the ILO conventions. Since the PPP/C took office in August last year, the GPSU has been writing and calling on the government to commence negotiations regarding salaries and other benefits.
Yarde described the Government’s actions as “discriminatory” while pointing out that the GPSU has written several times since 2020 requesting collective bargaining on public servants wages, salaries and allowances to no avail.
He further related that the situation worsened with the misrepresentation by the Government about the lack of time to satisfy the legal requirement of meeting with the GPSU. “There is a legal requirement that is there for them to meet with the GPSU and they are saying the lack of time cause them not to satisfy that. Could you imagine a Government saying that it is at their convenience to observe the rule of law, the respect it?” Yarde questioned.
As the largest employer in Guyana, Yarde said the Government is certainly setting “bad and dangerous” examples to the other employers.
On November 19 last year, Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag said that the government was “pressed for time” before it announced its 7% increase for public servants, resulting in the union not being consulted.
The Minister made the comment during a brief telephone interview with the Stabroek News.
“We did engage with the GPSU where they proposed certain increases and we told them that we would have to get back to them on and discuss further on but time did not permit me, because the exercises (GOAL Scholarships etc were) going on,” Parag said.
Since then, nothing has been heard from Parag or the government on collective bargaining for 2022.
The union yesterday also raised concerns about the manner of allocation of resources by the government.
In a statement, the GPSU said: “One would have thought that the Government having recognised its past blunders would have sought to correct these in the year 2022. However, amidst spiraling price increases, Government has ignored its responsibilities to Public Servants, while embarking on costly political excursions, mostly within its traditional political constituents. It has also committed the public coffers to billions of dollars in grants, aid and other financial benefits for what appears to be carefully chosen segments of the population, while allowing larger masses of the population to suffer in anguish from the onslaught of the constantly rising prices”.
