After more than a decade of lobbying by sweeper cleaners in public schools about their paltry salaries and non-permanent status, government yesterday announced that with immediate effect changes would give them minimum wage but with full-time contracts and gratuity.
The payment and conditions of service of sweepers and cleaners in public schools have been longstanding issues dating back to 2011 when Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was then president and had promised to raise their salaries to at least minimum wage.
“The Cabinet, under the chairmanship of His Excellency President Irfaan Ali, has recently instructed that sweeper-cleaners at all public schools be immediately offered employment on a full-time contract gratuity basis at the public service minimum wage level,” a statement from government yesterday announced.
“The Cabinet gave this directive in order for steps to be taken to regularize the manner in which sweeper-cleaners are employed and paid at public schools,” it added.
Government said that its decision will bring closure to the long outstanding matter which has affected this category of workers in the public school system.
Shortly after the announcement, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) responded by saying that the decision was “heartening” but expressed concern at their employment status being contractual.
Stabroek News was told that the decision came on the direct order of Ali, following complaints made during countrywide outreaches. Ali has said that issues relating to education and the delivery of education are a top priority for him—a point he recently echoed at a United Nations summit.
“This is part of his [the President’s] commitment to address matters head on and not have easily solvable issues drag on,” Communications Director for the Office of the President Suelle Findlay-Williams told the Stabroek News when contacted.
Surprised
GPSU First Vice President Dawn Gardener told this newspaper that the GPSU was surprised at the announcement as there had been no meetings on the issue with government recently.
She pointed to the statement dispatched by the union on how it felt about the issue.
GPSU said that while the news was welcomed, the fact that the employment statuses of the cleaners are not permanent and are on a contract gratuity basis is cause for concern for it as it believes that it would not address the issue of persons who have worked for years.
“It is however disheartening to note that these Sweeper Cleaners would be retained on a contract gratuity basis and not be co-opted into the permanent pensionable establishment, thus ensuring that their years of service to the Country could be preserved and meaningful superannuation benefits granted. The GPSU had always clearly expressed this requirement to Government, as it is considered most deserving to their security of tenure,” the union said.
“…The GPSU views with grave concern Government’s hesitancy to rightly place Sweepers/Cleaners on the permanent establishment of the Public Service ensuring that they equally receive benefits, including salary adjustments, similar to that of other workers within their category. What is most alarming is that to date these workers are still being treated with little or no respect, even though they continue to give of their best, while performing duties under hazardous conditions, with little or no personal protective equipment.”
The union pointed out that over the years it has written to both the PPP/C and APNU+AFC governments “ad nauseum”, with a view to alleviating the economic pressures on the workers “who gave yeoman service to the Country, but who over the years were condemned to a life of misery because of poor remuneration and no superannuation benefits at the end of their tenures”.
“…Government’s decision to regularize the pay structures and recognizing the need for superannuation benefits should have added some permanence to the perceived structure to ensure that retirement would come with some benefits,” it said.
And while government’s statement said the decision takes effect immediately, the union noted that there was no word on if it will be retroactive.
“Government’s announcement of the new measure has left much to be desired, since the proclamation has not included effective dates or its retroactivity,” the union said.
It noted that since November 5, 2013, Cabinet took decisions “For the regularization in the recruitment and improvement of Sweepers/Cleaners employed in relation to Schools”. This decision, according to the GPSU, was to have retroactivity to July 2013.
However, the Sweeper Cleaners received no relief, which the GPSU claims is “mainly because of indecisiveness on the part of the Ministry of Education and Regional Administrative officials.”
“This is now another attempt to resolve this matter, albeit to the detriment of the Sweepers/Cleaners,” the Union stated. The GPSU views with grave concern Government’s hesitancy to rightly place Sweepers/Cleaners on the permanent establishment of the Public Service ensuring that they equally receive benefits, including salary adjustments, similar to that of other workers within their category. What is most alarming is that to date these workers are still being treated with little or no respect, even though they continue to give of their best, while performing duties under hazardous conditions, with little or no personal protective equipment,” the union stated.
“These workers have not been in receipt of increases in salaries since 2019 and were discriminated against when the payment of the one-off twenty-five thousand dollars bonus was paid to public servant during 2020. This situation continued in 2021, following the imposition of the seven percent across the board pay-out. Our Sweeper Cleaners are valuable human resources, who perform tasks critical to their wellbeing and performance of the nation’s children and the related workforce, ensuring safe, clean and conducive environments for learning and work,” it added.
Pointing to the COVID/19 pandemic and effects it took on especially ancillary staff, the GPSU said that since then it required sweepers and cleaners to undertake more extensive and risky sanitization tasks.
It is against this background that the union called on the government to pay to all sweeper-cleaners without delay the bonus paid to public servants for the year 2020 and the imposed seven percent pay-out to public servants for the year 2021.
History
Just before the 2011 general elections, several sweeper-cleaners had protested outside the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President, where they lamented that their paltry salaries could barely meet the basic cost of living expenses, such as food, utilities and transportation for themselves and children.
As a result, the then president Jagdeo met with them and promised to see that their work statuses were upgraded and they are paid at least the country’s minimum wage.
After the polls, then Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon subsequently said he would check on the status of the assurance by the former president.
The matter would be drawn out over the subsequent administrations without resolve.
Following Jagdeo’s promise, the cleaners would hear from the Donald Ramotar administration that the matter would be looked out.
After Ramotar lost office, the David Granger administration continued talks with the GPSU and in September of 2017 it also announced that it would bring an end to “this sorry situation,” as it declared that the category of workers would get minimum wage.
Nothing happened and the following year the union accused the government of keeping them in the dark as to the progress of its promise to resolve the issue.
Gardener was yesterday asked if the union had met with the PPP/C government on the issue and she said that it had not to the best of her knowledge.
However, during outreaches across the country, Ali had been receiving complaints.
Seemingly fed up of the matter being drawn out further, his Communications Director said he advised his Cabinet to work on swiftly resolving the issue.
Meanwhile, government also announced that additional steps have also been initiated to address “other pending anomalies in the salaries being paid to other categories of employees, including some teachers who are affected by inconsistencies in their pay grades depending on the year in which they were appointed.”
“Government has already started working to take stock of this problem with a view to resolving it going forward. These initiatives all form part of this Government’s ongoing efforts to improve the conditions of employment of public sector workers,” the government statement said.
