A LARGE group of irate municipal workers gathered in City Hall compound yesterday to protest against the non-payment of June salaries.

The workers who protested included labourers, office assistants, drainage and irrigation workers, sluice operators, among others.

The protesters were supposed to have received their pay since June 26 but, 13 days later, they were still complaining that neither Town Clerk Yonnette Pluck nor City Treasurer Andrew Meredith had the courtesy to tell them anything.
July payments are due in two weeks’ time and the municipal employees said, yesterday, they shudder to think what would happen to them this month if they cannot be paid for June.
The complainants included labourers, office assistants, drainage and irrigation workers and sluice operators, among others, all of whom were promised June pay packets last Friday but were disappointed and angry at not receiving any money when they turned up at the bank.
Guyana Labour Union (GLU) Field Officer Clarence Whitehead met with Pluck while the demonstration was in progress yesterday and emerged from the meeting to announce that the disbursement would be done before yesterday ended.
However, the employees did not take his word and pledged to continue protesting until they collected their cash.
Meanwhile, at the fortnightly statutory meeting yesterday afternoon, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said a significant number of workers would have been paid by yesterday afternoon, and the rest before the week is over.
Some of those protesting threatened to leave the kokers unattended so that their superiors would understand the seriousness of the situation. Others resorted to using indecent language and directing derogatory remarks at Pluck and Meredith.
A number of them converged in front of Pluck’s office as they sought to be helped out of their plight but, despite their request for her to offer an explanation, she remained inside.
Mayor Hamilton Green was on the scene, trying to console the demonstrators but with little success.
M&CC employees, often, face the same problem and the dire financial situation of the municipality seems not to be getting any better.