By Svetlana Marshall

SIX months after the Government gave a commitment to resolve the age-old sweeper-cleaners issue, it is still an outstanding matter.In December 2015, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) pleaded with the Administration to have sweeper-cleaners paid under the minimum wage order, and paid retroactively to July 2013, in keeping with a Cabinet decision taken under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government.
In response, Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, on December 31 informed the union that the issue was at the time engaging the attention of Cabinet.
“Since then we haven’t heard anything from the Government,” GPSU President Patrick Yarde told the Guyana Chronicle during a recent interview.
According to Yarde, since the APNU+AFC Government took office in May 2015, the union has held a series of consultations with President David Granger, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence, Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally, and Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin, but to no avail.
“Every opportunity we had to raise it, we raised it,” said a frustrated Yarde. He said that the injustice being meted out to sweeper-cleaners who continue to play a critical role in keeping the environment of public buildings clean ought to be corrected.
In December 2013, the then Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, had announced that supplementary provisions would have been sought to pay sweeper-cleaners attached to the Education Ministry in keeping with the minimum wage order.
But although Dr Luncheon had made that public announcement, the GPSU was never formally informed, nor were the supplementary provisions put into effect.
CABINET DECISION
Today, the struggle continues. The GPSU is pushing for sweeper-cleaners to be employed on the permanent establishment and paid in keeping with the Public Service minimum wage. “It was a Cabinet decision and it ought to be honoured,” the GPSU President maintained.
He said although these sweeper cleaners were contracted to work six hours per day, they often work eight hours per day, and as such should be paid in full.
Yarde also noted that prior to Government’s announcement in the 2015 Budget that these employees should be paid at a rate of $312 per hour, they were receiving less than $202 per hour, although the National Minimum Wage Order which took effect July 1, 2013, stated that every person employed in Guyana shall be paid no less than $202 per hour.
Sweeper-cleaners are not considered to be permanent employees, but rather contractual employees and so they have not been paying NIS contributions, but Yarde said this must be corrected.
“NIS must be paid for these employees. However, an investigation must be conducted and correction be made so that all employees must be able to benefit from an NIS pension at the time of retirement,” Yarde explained in the letter he had written to Minister Sharma.
While the union is disappointed that the matter is still to be addressed, it is not prepared to jeopardise the lives of children.
“Industrial action would put children in jeopardy and we are not anxious and hasty in taking such action,” he said, noting that the GPSU would remain hopeful that good sense would prevail.