…gov’t says there’s not enough in the coffers to pay more

INDUSTRIAL unrest among Government employees for fatter pay packets appears to be slowly spreading, with workers of the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) being the latest group to take to the picket line.
At least 50 WDRH staffers staged a picketing demonstration outside that health care institution at Best Village, West Coast Demerara.
Other entities that also participated in the midday protest were the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) headquarters, the Linden Hospital Complex, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The workers on the picket line are all venting their anger at the five percent retroactive pay hike for 2013 that Government intends to pay out by next month.
At the WDRH, workers’ placards read the following slogans, among other things: “We want 25% or give us the 15% from the budget”, “Public servants are not Christmas Ponies”, and “5% can’t work. Public servants are not slaves”.
Nurses from this entity informed that they were protesting because they were informed that enough money had been passed in the 2013 national budget to allow public servants a 15% ‘back-pay’ this year.
At the same time, workers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) used their lunch hour to vent their anger at the five percent retroactive pay hike for 2013.
On Monday, however, the governing Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) stuck with the Government’s line that there was not enough money in the coffers to pay more than the estimated five percent increase. “We have to take account of what is going on in the country. Increases can only be paid in accordance with the affordability of the state to pay those increases,” said PPP Central Committee member Anil Nandlall.
Nandlall blamed the combined opposition for cutting the budget by Gy$32 billion, saying, that has resulted in job losses and lower-than-expected economic growth.
The projects he was alluding to included the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, the Specialty Hospital and the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). He also noted, “(With) the opposition orchestrating all these damaging acts against the economy, what do you expect? You will have less jobs and the country will not be in a position to pay more than five percent, so the opposition must take the responsibility for the five percent and the failure of the economy to provide jobs,” he added.
Nandlall, who is also Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, said that voting down of the amendments to the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act by the opposition would as well impact negatively on the economy.