-GPSU states demands ahead of talks with Gov’t today

By Derwayne Wills
GOVERNMENT has invited GPSU, the union representing public servants, to begin negotiations on wages and salaries today, but the absence of a specific call for negotiations on allowances has union leaders stumped.The GPSU is going to the table with a demand for a 40 percent increase in salaries, and the union also wants the Government not to pussyfoot on the matter of allowances.

GPSU President Patrick Yarde told reporters on Tuesday that Government’s invitation was specific to talks on wages and salaries for 2016, and nothing was said about allowances.

“Allowances (are in) the most ridiculous state that exists right now in the Public Service, and we are not prepared to have that feature any further delayed,” Yarde said.

He has written Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who issued the invitation for talks, for clarification on the matter.

Yarde said he had met Finance Minister Winston Jordan before budget 2015, and has been assured that allowances for public servants, outstanding for more than 20 years, would be treated apart from wages and salaries.

Government had set up a Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service, and had said the report would be used to guide the development of the public sector, including wages, salaries and allowances.

All wage negotiations with the union representing the country’s public servants were put on hold until the report was presented to the President. President Granger received the report last May.

Commenting on the contents of the report, which recommended an overhaul of the remunerative structure, the GPSU President said there are mixed feelings coming from the union about the contents of the report.

Article 215A of the Guyana Constitution speaks to the establishment of a Public Service Appellate Tribunal. Yarde advocated at his press conference for re-establish ment of the tribunal, which has not been summoned since the first term of the then Bharrat Jagdeo Administration (2001-2006).

Yarde felt it was a deliberate move by the Jagdeo Administration to delay the appointment of the constitutional body, which is to be appointed by the President.

“That body has (sic) got the power to overrule any decision made by the Public Service Commission except (those involving) transfers. It could overrule appointments [and] dismissals,” Yarde said, adding that public servants had the right to appeal to the tribunal if they felt dissatisfied by a decision taken by the Commission.

The tribunal had, for clarity, the power to nullify certain positions taken by the Public Service Commission, which has been accused of being defunct by politically-motivated persons serving on the body.

INCREMENTAL INCREASES
The GPSU President echoed the sentiments of President David Granger, who said some time ago that salary increases for public servants should be done incrementally and be based on the employee’s performance.

Yarde bemoaned the situation wherein public servants have been kept within the same salary scale although they were employed for up to ten years.

“That was an issue since in 1999, when we had the strike and the Tribunal did rule that increments be paid,” Yarde continued, adding that the implementation of increments was abandoned under the Jagdeo Administration.

At the negotiations, to be held today at the Ministry of the Presidency’s Annex at Waterloo Street, Georgetown, GPSU will be represented by Yarde as well as the union’s first vice-president, Mortimer Livan, and other officers. The Government team will be led by Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service, Reginald Brotherson.

The meeting today marks the first time the GPSU will meet with the David Granger Administration on wages and salaries for public servants.

Under the Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar administrations, negotiations with the union were promised but were not followed through. Instead, the previous administrations had imposed increases for a number of years.