For the second time since October, President Irfaan Ali has spoken about a job training programme with Canada but details have not been provided and the number of persons has changed.
The President did say that there will be guaranteed employment at starting salaries of US$30,000 annually.
“The programme that we are discussing with our Canadian counterparts is tied to training and jobs…” Ali said.
“So what we’ll be doing is launching a specific programme where we will be training 2,000 Guyanese in the first phase. Training them in essential skills certified by the best, who gives those certifications and aligning them with jobs. The average salary and lowest scale is US$30,000 annually. We are looking at this innovative approach, to create high value, higher value jobs right here in Guyana. So that is another industry that will be launched in 2024,” the President announced at the Private Sector Commission’s 2023 Annual Gala and Awards Dinner, held on Tuesday night at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.
The President however, did not go into detail about what the plans entail or which areas of training the persons would be focussed on.
However, at the Agri Investment Forum & Expo held in October of this year, he had announced that Guyana and Canada will partner to create 3,000 innovative jobs here especially for the younger generation as he pushed the importance of science and technology in developing agriculture.
“We are going to launch a programme where we want to have at least 3,000 of our young people in these innovative jobs in the coming years and Canada and Guyana will partner in developing the framework to provide the training to have our young people in these innovative jobs in the technological field,” he had said.
When he spoke, it had been mere days after returning from a CARICOM-Canada summit in Ottawa, and he said the goal was to position Guyana in the world 2030 and beyond as a global leader on climate change, food security and energy security.
In November at the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber’s Annual Awards and Induction Ceremonial Dinner, the President had spoken about 2,000 nearshoring jobs for youths. The President’s party’s manifesto pledge in 2020 was for the creation of 50,000 jobs in the five-year term.
On Tuesday evening, he explained that discussions have already begun with large multinational companies such ExxonMobil and others who outsource employment that Guyanese should be priority. “We have already raised with Exxon and other partners and major multinationals operating in Guyana who are outsourcing jobs that they have to work with us in providing some of those jobs in Guyana and so they will outsource to Guyanese in Guyana.”
And even as he touted to the private sector, potential starting salaries here of US$30,000 annually for persons under the programme, Ali underscored that the sector has to a role to play, especially when it comes to wages as they help to influence the country’s wages and salaries scales of balance.
Explain
“Let me explain something to the private sector. 6.5 per cent for you to add your voices because you complain to me. The problem we have now is because of the consistent increases we have, in the public sector wages. Public sector is now drawing away at the middle and lower level, away from the private sector, because the salary in the public sector at a low level is now higher in most cases, if not all, in the private sector.
To the gasps in the room, he told them, “I know that you find that hard to swallow”, as he backed up his claim with data from local banks on their starting salaries.
He asserted, “I can tell you what is the starting salary at the bank and I can tell you what is the starting salary in government and you can add your allowances too and count, but this is a challenge because the government cannot outstrip the private sector… the government cannot be in competition with the private sector. The balance as we go forward is very important. If you go too far ahead on salary, we’re dismantling that balance.”
“It is very important for us to understand that balance,” he added.
Ali said that many persons, including unions, call for varying increases annually but government has to “navigate” its recurrent expenditures, under which salaries and wages for public servants fall, very prudently.
He said that if every year the salary increases by large percentages, it will have be sustained and any negative changes in the economy can see a “shock” to the system. “You have to tame recurrent expenditure,” he advised.
“It is easy to say give 10 per cent or give 15 per cent but it is year upon year. That is what is missing in the analysis because our memory is so short we don’t remember what happened last year. Private sector, you have to be involved in this conversation, because this is an important challenge that you are facing,” he said.
Following pressure from trade unions and civil society, the $60,000 National Minimum Wage Order was signed in June last year and which stated that private sector employees should not be paid less than $60,147 per month.
It was Ali who had announced the increase. “The Cabinet has agreed with the recommendation of the tripartite group and we are in support of the minimum wage that is going to be established, that is the $60,000 minimum wage. We are friends of the workers. We are not enemies of the workers. We want what is best for the workers,” he had said.
The order took effect from July 1, 2022. The change in the National Minimum Wage came approximately five years after the last one, which had taken effect on January 1, 2017. At that time the rate moved from $34,500 to $44,200.
The order also states that employees are not required to work additional hours for the new increase. The order reminds employers that the work week shall remain 40 hours and not exceed 5 days per week. Additional work beyond the regular working hours will be treated as overtime and calculated as set out in the Factories (Hours and Holidays) Act.
Employers breaching the agreement will be found liable and face possible jail time.
