THE Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) believes that labour issues in Guyana must be specifically represented at the level of Cabinet. Thus the body has reiterated its call for the Ministry of Labour to be re-established.The union said in a release that Government, on ascension to office in 2015, disbanded the Labour Ministry in a move unprecedented in the nation’s history, and workers do not now have a ministry or specific Cabinet representation. This action by the Government, the union has said, stands in contravention of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 87, which examines freedom of association and protection of the right to organise.

The GTUC said it wrote President David Granger, expressing its concern over the absence of that Ministry and calling for its re-establishment.

The Ministry of Social Protection currently handles labour issues, but
the union has said that social protection is one of the four strategic objectives of the ILO Decent Work Agenda, which the Government of Guyana embraced and has shaped the Guyana Decent Work Programme.

The GTUC explained that social protection is part of labour, and not the other way round; that is to say: labour is not part of social protection. The reason for this, the union said, is because labour comprises a number of cross-cutting issues, which include youth, women, the elderly, National Insurance, job creation and protection, and child labour, among other issues.

The union also registered its concerns regarding Guyana’s non-participation at the ILO annual conference. This year the conference was held in June in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Green Economy was on its agenda.

“With the Government’s claim that it is pursuing said economic model, it would have been to Guyana’s interest and benefit to have input in the programmes ILO will put in place for regions and countries, such as capacity-building for actors in the state and non-state sectors,” the union has contended.