Re-elected President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Patrick Yarde has indicated his determination to have talks resume earliest to address the matter of public workers’ wages.
The long-standing GPSU head told reporters Thursday that talks with the government over workers’ increases should have resumed since last year, and he has since written to the relevant authorities to that effect.
Yarde was at the time speaking on the sidelines of the swearing-in of the Public Service Appellate Tribunal members at State House, when he told reporters that the union continues to make requests for meeting on the workers’ matter to be convened, but these are yet to materialise.
“Talks should have resumed since last year and I have written to that effect and I hope there will be no further delay in having that matter addressed,” Yarde stated.
In providing an update on the current situation, Yarde said a major aspect was that last year, he had received a letter from the Finance Minister which stated that he had been mandated by the President to deal with the State workers’ matter.
Yarde said he in turn responded to the minister, indicating the union’s willingness to meet.
The GPSU head said he even met with a team of representatives and it was agreed that the matters would be addressed, “expeditiously”.
He expressed disappointment at what he claimed is the procrastination that has been taking place on the part of government.
“There is an economic crisis out there, people need economic relief and the way for that to be pursued is by addressing formally, a living wage and consequential increases for all public servants,” he insisted.
Yarde reiterated that the workers’ representatives are ready to resume talks, and this will be addressed through more correspondence to the relevant authorities.
Last year, the GPSU in a letter to the labour arm of the Social Protection Ministry, asked that the agency facilitate conciliation talks with the government, since discussions had reached a deadlock.
The union had rejected government’s differentiated offer of 10 per cent to one per cent; from the lowest, to higher wage earners. While the government had stated that it was offering workers what it could have afforded at the time, the GPSU has maintained that the excuses offered are not good enough.
In a public missive earlier this month, the Guyana Trades Union Congress General-Secretary Lincoln Lewis claimed that, “In the case of collective bargaining between the State agencies and trade unions, particularly as it involves wages/salaries and working conditions, the imposition of these continue under the APNU+AFC government.”
Trade union heads have vowed to stick together in their request for workers’ increases. They have asked for as much as a 40 per cent increase for their members. The unions are however determined to have their demands met by the new government, since they are unwilling to endure any more impositions following more than a decade of arbitrary wage impositions of usually five per cent by the former People’s Progressive Party government.
“Significant” workers’ increases was one of the government’s campaign promises to be acted on within the first 100 days of being in office. The government has noted however, that after getting into government and assessing the true nature of things, it can only provide for the nation based on what is available.