–if gov’t does not treat GPSU with respect

PRESIDENT of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Patrick Yarde on Friday cautioned that his union is likely to step up militancy to change what it believes to be government’s disregard for the principle of collective bargaining as it relates to wages and salaries.
Yarde told reporters that the union feels betrayed by the APNU+AFC coalition government’s attitude towards negotiations. He could not state when industrial action would be taken, as the decision has to be taken following consultations.
“The entrenched official disregard for the principle of collective bargaining remains a reality, and the take-it-or-leave-it underpinning that has customarily informed wages and salaries negotiations remain in vogue,” he said from a prepared text.
According to Yarde, despite hoping for change with a new government, the union is faced with “the same attitude to public servants’ wages and salaries that obtained when the Office of the Finance Minister was held by Bharrat Jagdeo.”
Recalling that back then, Finance Minister Winston Jordan held the post of budget advisor and chief negotiator of wages and salaries, Yarde said:
“We are now being led to believe that the administration feels that peppercorn salaries and attendant unacceptable conditions of service have come to be regarded as the destiny for public servants.”
Contending that the Finance Minister has reneged on an agreement made in 2015 that all allowances accruing to public servants would be addressed expeditiously, Yarde said:
“That commitment by the APNU+AFC government was dishonoured, as was the commitment to respect and honour other obligations agreed to in the arena of Collective Bargaining.”
He said that last year, notwithstanding an agreement that negotiations would be conducted in accordance with the existing agreement for the avoidance and settlement of disputes, “what transpired was more of the same deliberate non-negotiable imposition and a blatant refusal to conduct negotiations in accordance with the agreed agenda.”

IN-SCALE INCREMENTS

He said that after more than two decades, issues such as in-scale increments and de-bunching remain unaddressed. “What passes for negotiations in 2017 is characterised by the same unyielding and unprincipled official posture. We are faced with the same bad-faith official stance in engaging the union on the various critical and long-standing remuneration-related concerns of public servants,” Yarde stated.
The union wants the government to expeditiously address the completion of wages and salaries negotiations for 2016 “in an environment of genuine collective bargaining”, the immediate and final agreement on improved allowances for public servants, and the agreement on the de-bunching of salaries, which he says are “stuck at the minimum of pay bands.”
Yarde contends that during discussions, negotiators opted to follow the pattern of imposing a take-it-or-leave-it Christmas handout. “Condescending handouts persist!” he declared, while stating that there is a conspiracy to deny public servants of merited and overdue benefits.
“Upon reflection, the union finds it impossible to reconcile the government’s articulation of the desirability of a highly motivated and efficient public service with an approach to negotiating wages and salaries that renders the realisation of a strong and capable public service impossible to realise.”
The GPSU President posited that government’s negotiators presented an offer that was both “unreasonable and inflexible.” “We believe that the government of Guyana now stands guilty of taking advantage of the responsible posture towards the development of the country which the union and its members have historically taken loyally and very seriously and we are feeling betrayed,” he told reporters while flanked by several union representatives.
As such, Yarde warned that strategies are being contemplated that “seek to bring greater pressure to bear in order to ensure that government demonstrates a far greater mindfulness of the rights and entitlements of public servants.”

CHANGE OF POSTURE
These strategies he said will unfold unless government’s posture changes with alacrity, Yarde assured. Government has proposed an increase of between 2 per cent and 8 per cent with plans also to increase the minimum wage to $60,000. The union has submitted a proposal for negotiation, but the government has already stated that its offer is final.
When asked whether he believes the government has the finances to offer more to public servants, Yarde said, “When we are talking about affordability it must apply to everything, it must not apply to some things.”
He said when government ministers received salary increases he did not find them to be excessive and that position has not changed. However, Yarde believes that there are other inadequate salaries.
“They seem to be handpicking of increases in salaries for people in the public sector… I am saying categorically that the government could do better in paying public servants; you look around and see how money could be found to do a variety of things…right in this location you could see. Why money cannot be found to pay the people who right now slaving in the Public Service? It is a deliberate attempt to keep them in poverty,” declared the GPSU President who described the government as “uncaring and cruel.”
Notwithstanding his position, Yarde made it clear that public servants need to take the increase offered by government. ““They need money! Let them take it; it won’t compromise this union,” he said.
Meanwhile, the GPSU said it stands in solidarity with the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) which is currently mobilising teachers from across the country to be part of strike action next week. The move by the GTU follows an unsuccessful meeting with the Ministry of Education Thursday.
The meeting with Education Minister Nicolette Henry and other officials reportedly lasted under 10 minutes when the GTU team, headed by president Mark Lyte, walked out after the minister failed to address the issues placed before her, including a multi-year proposal.
However, Yarde said he could not state whether the GPSU will join the GTU in industrial action as decisions of that nature have to be made by a constitutional body. “The GPSU has always been a union that deals with trade union solidarity; that’s a principle.”