Following a scathing attack last week on his two-year-old administration for ignoring collective bargaining for members of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), President Irfaan Ali yesterday said that he has scheduled a meeting with the union to have the issue of wages, among other grievances discussed.
“I am going to meet with them…,” he told Stabroek News yesterday on the sidelines of the sod-turning ceremony at Goedverwagting for a hospital.
He said that he has “already scheduled a meeting” with the union’s representative in its Vice President Dawn Gardener and that the issue would be discussed as he was not afraid to meet with stakeholders on matters they view as important to the development of the nation.
But 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 GPSU and the union last week signalled that legal action over the matter was in the works.
In the past, PPP/C Governments have made unilateral increases 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.”
Long-serving GPSU President Patrick Yarde had last week also said that it is clear that “political machinations” are afoot to 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 spiralling 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 now 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.
