Government’s insensitivity to the plight of public sector workers, pensioners and the destitute is visible in the reality that only 1.7 percent of this year’s $781.9 billion budget directly affords them any relief, according to the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
In a press release issued on Friday, the GPSU suggested that issues concerning the alleviation of poverty should encompass no less than 25 per cent of the country’s annual budgets and this should include components that provide a living minimum wage to public sector workers. Consi-dering the current cost of living and the suffering endured by workers over the ages, a living wage in Guyana “should not be less than $200,000,” the GPSU said.
The release observed that there has been a lot of “glowing” commentary on Budget 2023 and some amount to nothing more than misrepresentations of facts. “There is ideally one truth that has been consistently unmasked by budgets for decades and that is, an obvious disregard for the employed poor and the underprivileged by the creation of a system of intergenerational dependency, which has sustained the working class over time,” the release quoted the union as saying.
The GPSU, as the representative of public servants, reiterated that it has consistently and repeatedly made it clear that government, as the major employer in Guyana, has the responsibility to better the lot of its employees. “The PPP/C Government, while admitting that their employees are the employed poor in Guyana, have not done anything willingly to lift public sector workers out of this morass. Instead, for 25 years to date, it has openly and consistently set out to destroy the employee’s basis of representation, alienate them from secure and pensionable employment, ignore the need for collective bargaining, and pay starvation salaries and wages,” the union was quoted as saying.
The GPSU informed that it had proposed measures for inclusion in Budget 2023 that were either ignored or frowned upon. The union’s proposals were:
i) the increase of the income tax threshold to $150,000 per month or one-third of the individual income, whichever is higher;
ii) de-bunching of staff, awards of increments and incentives, and the improvement of allowances and working conditions;
iii) the income tax rates be further reduced to 10% on the first taxable $150,000 and 20% on the balance of taxable income, instead of the current methodology of 28% and 40%;
iv) a non-taxable allowance of $40,000 per month for dependents;
v) a non-taxable allowance of $75,000 per month for students who are dependents and are pursuing tertiary level education locally;
vi) a reduction of the Value Added Tax to 6%; and
vii) that remuneration increases take into consideration the inadequacy of salaries compared with the cost of living and remuneration of public workers in other Caricom states.
It is the opinion of the GPSU that these measures would have been beneficial to the working class and would have enabled them to better cope with the economic pressures at home, especially now that government enjoys access and intends to draw down a minimum of $208.9 billion from the Natural Resources Fund during 2023, compared to the approximate $126 billion that was utilised from the fund in 2022.
The union said that its written proposals, now and over the years, could have positively impacted the workers, but were “totally ignored” in governments’ financial plans. The prevailing cost of living, the GPSU said, has “decimated” the abilities of more than 25,000 state workers to properly take care of themselves and families, including the possibilities of savings for the future, and funding for rest and relaxation. These have been replaced by survival debt. “This is the reality of the Guyanese workers, who struggle daily, and every five years go to the polls to elect governments that … are unwilling to implement policies that would lift them to betterment,” the release quoted the union as saying.
The GPSU added that notwithstanding its proposals to government, nothing should undermine its responsibilities to fairly treat, consider and address matters concerning the payment of a living wage to employees. Therefore, the release said, it feels that in this regard, it is opportune to suggest that the starting point should be the updating of the basket of goods, upon which the consumer price index is determined to more accurately reflect the needs of today’s families, in order to properly relate to consumers’ woes and be realistic when determining salary and wage revisions.
The union also took a swing at the practice of the government to impose pay increases at Christmas time which then sets up public sector workers to suffer at the hands of “price gouging” businesses. It highlighted what it described as “a lingering and unspoken vendetta” against public sector workers that constantly fuels migration and crime at a swifter pace than individual development. The rise in crime, it added, has ushered in premature deaths, high expenditure to keep the lawless in captivity and the subsequent rehabilitation of errant citizens. “It is nonetheless clear that Guyana’s governments have never considered the correlation between the percentage of criminality in the state and political decisions made concerning the livelihood of the individuals,” the release added.
History
Taking a look back, the GPSU observed, “From the inception of the relationship with PPP/C governments, the GPSU has always indicated that it was concerned with the plight of public sector workers and has taken the position that as a matter of priority, they must be lifted out of poverty through the improvement of conditions of service.”
The release acknowledged that in the beginning, 1993, the relationship between the union and government was not an acrimonious one. Initially, an encouraging agreement premised on good faith and accurate information was entered into on September 14, 1993 between the two parties. However, as time passed, there was a rapid breakdown in the relationship.
There was a silver lining when the relationship was somewhat resuscitated. Another agreement was entered into in 1997 when then president Cheddi Jagan set up a bilateral committee with six government nominees and an equal number of trade union representatives to address the matter of the employed poor. However, although the committee finalised its work and unanimously agreed on what could be done, the recommendations were “scuttled,” the release said.
Fast forward to today, and, according to the union, “an impasse exists, and conditions have worsened,” even though there was a change of government for the 2015-2020 five-year period. The GPSU said it is faced with a situation whereby the government, instead of the pursuing a path of good governance through respect for the rule of law and resolving issues along the legitimate processes of collective bargaining, has for decades, been pursuing means of undermining the union in its legitimate efforts to represent and discharge its functions in the interests of its membership and its role in society.
As an example of the uncaring nature of government, the union’s release spotlighted a statement by a government minister that “old age pension was not meant to ‘mind’ anyone, it’s just a pension.” This “unenlightened statement,” the union opined, came from a “predictable mindset” to countermand the circumstances of old age pensioners, on whose backs this country was built and who have suffered “countless years” on poor salaries and wages handouts at the behest of governments. These persons, it noted, continue to be relegated to a life of poverty and dependency on government handouts.
“Of course, it would have been surreal if governments were to act in the best interest of the people, creating a utopia where the pension could not be looked upon to support the recipient, but instead a monthly top-up in memory of patriotism and service given. This is sorely not the case, and the foreboding evidence of ever-increasing poverty and homelessness fills the capital and the country daily,” the GPSU said.
