GPSU appeals to European Union against Govt’s ‘unilateral’ wages, salary increases
From left, GPSU Senior Industrial Relations Officer, Dennis English; First Vice-President, Mortimer Livan; Second Vice-President, Dawn Gardener; and Executive Council Member, Janice Waldron
From left, GPSU Senior Industrial Relations Officer, Dennis English; First Vice-President, Mortimer Livan; Second Vice-President, Dawn Gardener; and Executive Council Member, Janice Waldron

THE Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has expressed frustration with the Guyana Government as it “continues to dishonour the legally binding Collective (Bargaining) Labour Agreement that exists with the union. 

At a press conference yesterday, GPSU’s First Vice- President, Mortimer Livan told reporters it is now year-end and up to now “the Government has failed to engage the GPSU to bargain for increases in wages and salaries for public servants for 2014.”
In previous years, salary increases for public servants were done unilaterally whereby the Government, without consultation with the union, would impose a five percent salary increase. Increases of five percent were granted in 2010, and 2012. An eight percent increase was however given in 2011.
No increase was provided in the 2014 budget but, earlier this year President Ramotar had explained that he preferred to have a negotiated settlement on wages and salary increases with the unions. The President said: “I would like to see them sit down at the negotiating table and come up with an agreement on wages this year,”
Similarly, then Public Service Minister, Jennifer Westford in her address to the National Assembly said: “To say that there is no salary increases for public servants is inaccurate and misleading. The fact is that the quantum of monies to be paid to public servants will originate from the collective bargaining process between [the] PSM [Public Service Ministry] and [the] GPSU [Guyana Public Service Union].”
Reading the official position of the GPSU, Livan maintained the legitimacy of collective bargaining as a legal right of workers in labour relations and governance. “Collective bargaining is therefore enshrined in national and international laws and conventions… [in order] to come together in good faith to discuss and agree on terms and conditions for workers as it relates to wages, salaries and working conditions.”
Livan asserted the authority of the union as a legitimate, legal representative of public servants mandated under the 1997 Trade Union Recognition Act. He also cited Article 147 (3) of the Guyana Constitution to say: “Neither an Employer nor a Trade Union shall be deprived of the right to enter into Collective Agreements.
“The GPSU believes the Guyana Government has violated a number of international labour legislation [sic] which it is has signed onto. “Instead of genuinely participating in the Collective Bargaining process… the Government has been unilaterally imposing across- the- board increases in salaries and wages for public servants, in spite of strident and repeated protestations from the GPSU.”
According to the GPSU, negotiations between the trade union body and the Public Service Ministry have ground to a halt, since there have been no engagements for this year except through letter correspondences where “PSM responded through the Permanent Secretary [Hydar Ally] that they were awaiting the response from the ‘relevant agencies’.” Efforts by the Guyana Chronicle to contact the permanent secretary were unsuccessful.
As a result of their frustration, the GPSU has decided to appeal to the Delegation to the European Union in Guyana, “requesting their intervention.” Livan expressed optimism in this action since, according to him, similar action was taken in Sri Lanka where the EU had reduced donor funding until the Sri Lankan Government had entered talks with labour unions.
The GPSU is proposing incremental increases in wages and salaries of 25% for 2013, 30% in 2014 and 35% in 2015, which they see as necessary, since according to their analysis using a “Basket of Goods” approach, the current minimum wage is not enough for the present cost of living. This decision could influence the new standard for wages and salaries in both the public and private sectors.

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