The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday again demanded that the government conform to its legal obligations under the Constitution and Laws of Guyana by engaging in collective bargaining with the union for all outstanding matters from the year 2020 to date.
The union was responding to the recent announcement by the government of a 6.5% wage increase for 2022 for public servants and other categories.
In a statement, the union said “The increases being imposed in recent years are being made on grossly inadequate salaries that spanned the ages, without proper determination of what constituted a living wage, given factors such as the astronomical currency devaluations which consistently affects the price of goods and services and consequentially the cost of living”.
It said that even as Public Servants are made to suffer the indignity of “starvation wages and high taxation”, Government has allowed investors to plunder the patrimony of Guyana.
“One of these investors, ExxonMobil, is being spared US$2.841 billion in taxes to date to the detriment of Guyanese. While in opposition, this government decried the imbalances and is on record promising to renegotiate the unfavourable terms of that agreement. They have now lost the political will to keep that election promise”, the GPSU charged.
At the same time, it said that the Government is waiving billions in taxes from multi-billion-dollar multinational corporations and the total public debt to be repaid by Guyanese taxpayers has increased by 16.9% between the years 2021 and 2022 and now stands at US$3.9 billion as a result of loans for infrastructure and social services.
“Mismanagement of resources and loss of revenues through lopsided deals with multinationals, excessive borrowing, along with the low priority given to the plight of the working class and pensioners are partially the reasons (for the) paltry $4,875 (equivalent to US$22.67) per month that was imposed on the monthly salary of persons earning the minimum wage in this currently touted `fastest growing economy in the world’”, the union argued.
The union said that it is small wonder that President Irfaan Ali dared not to countenance the reasons for the high migration of skilled nursing professionals to Great Britain, but instead accused that country of taking them.
“Migration impacts the very professional core of Guyana and has adversely increased with the coming of the PPP to Government, even though their propagandists would have us believe that this slowed since the Burnham era”, the union said.
The GPSU says it is guided by Article 147 (3) of the Constitution; Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act 1997, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 87 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining and Convention No. 151 on Labour Relations (Public Service) that were all ratified by the Parliament of Guyana and are in force, together with the Agreement for the Avoidance of Settlement of Disputes, between the Government of Guyana and the GPSU that is embodied in the Public Service Rules (1987).
“The blatant disregard for the legal requirements of the laws and other legal instruments, including the spirit of good industrial relations is abominable”, the union declared.
It also said that the fact that most of the electorate also treat lightly with Government’s lack of legal compliance, leaves much to be desired, especially because the inevitable `trickle down’ effects of such non-compliance would ultimately prove harmful to the populace.
“This has been evidenced over the last twenty-three (23) years of PPP/C governance from 1992 to 2015 and is now evident again, since resuming office in August 2020. The APNU+AFC Government over its five-year tenure was also culpable, as it followed the PPP/C example in relation to breaches of the Laws governing Collective Bargaining”, the union asserted.
It said that the Governments of Guyana over the years have neglected the plight of the employed poor and shunned providing them with an acceptable minimum wage that would take care of their monthly commitments to their families, including savings for clothing, housing, travel and relaxation needs.
“Any census taken with respect to these family needs would prove the inability of families to properly meet those needs, even though some are propped up by overseas remittances, on which there is a growing dependency. There are a large number of Guyanese, who have never travelled to explore the beauty of their own country, much less overseas. All these factors are based on affordability”, it asserted.
