The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday announced that it had written to Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton informing him of plans to initiate strike action, which Hamilton said goes against a pending court case instigated by the union.
In this regard, Hamilton added, the union should expect a similar reply to another letter it had sent on the same issue. In that response, he reminded, the Chief Labour Officer had explained that strike action “flies in the face of the court”.
“The Guyana Public Service Union rejects President Ali’s position that public sector employees must wait another two years to benefit from improved remuneration. These improvements are overdue and must be immediately addressed. They are merited – affordable and sustainable,” the GPSU said yesterday.
“The union will be fully justified to take whatever means are at its disposal, to exhaust all options available to attain social justice, and a better life for all public servants, and their families.”
At a press conference held at the GPSU Headquarters on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, President of the union Patrick Yarde bemoaned the government’s sloth in addressing the issue, even as he excoriated Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo for actively stymying the process.
“He was a finance minister of this country [and] caused the 1999 strike when agreeing to three percent over a 10-year period, when 31% was paid in one year and it didn’t wreck the economy. But he said inflation would have occurred and destroyed the economy,” Yarde lamented.
“Now, he is saying here that volatile oil prices were the reason for not increasing wages and salaries. Guyana is an oil producing country. If prices for oil go up, it is more revenue this country [will be] getting. How would it impact upon the ability of the government to pay more money?” he questioned.
Fed up with being ignored, Yarde said, the union has again written to the Ministry of Labour.
In February, the Executive Council of the GPSU announced that it had unanimously decided at its Statutory Meeting held on February 21, 2024, that an ultimatum be issued to the government to meet at the bargaining table. The failure of which, the union said, would result in industrial action to immediately end the government’s breach of the following guiding instruments of legal weight and force:
1. Agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes, between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Public Service Union of (1987),
2. Article 147 (3) of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and
3. Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act Cap 97:07.
In addition, it stated that the GPSU places reliance on the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) ratified by the Parliament of Guyana. It highlighted Convention No 87 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and Convention No 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. It also pointed to Convention No 151 on Labour Relations (Public Service), which espouses minimum standards of the conduct for collective bargaining and the protection of the rights of workers to be unionised and represented by their duly certified and recognised union with respect to any decision on the part of their employer that affects their salaries, wages, benefits, and other conditions of service.
“This decision is also guided by the protections offered to workers in Guyana pursuant to the ILO’s ‘Declaration of the Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work’ of 1998 (as amended in 2022) which is of weight and in force under the Laws of Guyana as an unincorporated ratified treaty,” the release said.
The GPSU said that the issues affecting workers in the public service, and the government’s reluctance to meet at the bargaining table, or to conciliate to break the deadlock that has arisen, were discussed extensively at the union’s meeting on February 21, which resulted from meetings with its members throughout the country.
“The union will continue to engage its members on this matter over the coming days through a committee which was established to ensure that the GPSU is mobilised, and all grievance procedures under the existing agreement (are) followed as we issue, and thereafter execute the ultimatum will now be directed to the government,” the union said.
After the GPSU issued the ultimatum, Chief Labour Officer Dhaneshwar Deonarine sought to excuse the Ministry of Labour’s inaction by producing advice from Solicitor General Nigel Hawke dated February 21, 2024 stating that since the court had been approached by the union on the same matter, the court’s jurisdiction should prevail. Hawke had been written to on this matter on October 6, 2023. There was no explanation from Hawke or Deonarine as to why the advice was only issued on February 21, 2024.
Based on documents released by the Ministry of Labour, the GPSU has been pressing for years on collective bargaining without a fruitful response by the Public Service Ministry.
Yarde had written to Deonarine on September 26, 2023 declaring that there was a breakdown of industrial relations with the Ministry of Public Service.
Yesterday, Yarde said that while the GPSU understood the constraints faced by judicial officers in the speedy disposal of matters, including the shortage of staff plaguing the judiciary, “the GPSU most humbly and respectfully bemoans the delay in the hearing of this matter which touches on a Constitutional issue of general importance, and the survival of the working poor which consists of more than 25,000 Guyanese employees in and out of uniform, who work in the public sector including the judiciary.
“Those who suffer under the yoke of starvation wages, injustice, and widespread discrimination at the hands of this government, must be given justice speedily by all means,” the GPSU added.
Hamilton said that while the ministry has received the latest letter from the union, the response would be the same as the circumstances at the court have not changed.
“This is the third such letter sent. It might have different language but it’s the same. The Chief Labour Officer responded some time ago to Mr Yarde and I suspect that it will be the same this time, where we contact the Solicitor General…,” Hamilton said.
“Mr Yarde should be reminded that this matter is before the court… Therefore until and unless that matter is concluded, if the attempt at what he is suggesting [the strike action] is activated, that will be flying in the face of the court. That is the position,” he added.
“Nothing has changed, as far as I know, regarding the court matter.”
