…PM says budget lays basis for social protection

“DECENT Work has to do with the protection not only of jobs and the creation of better jobs. It has to be the protection of social cohesion, protection of those who made a contribution to the society,” says Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo.

The Prime Minister made these remarks at the launch and official signing of the Decent Work Country Programme for Guyana 2017-2021, hosted at the Marriott Hotel on Friday. The programme, which ran its first phase during 2012-2015, is propelled by the collaborative efforts of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Decent Work Team and the Ministry of Social Protection.

Currently in its second phase, it will focus primarily on improving working conditions, preparing the environment for enterprises and fostering cooperation among employers, workers and the government.
During the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister told the gathering that this year’s budgetary allocation lays the basis for the social protection of workers and senior citizens, providing them with the opportunity to benefit from their contributions and to live a meaningful life with dignity.

Nagamootoo elaborated that within the last two and a half years, the government has made advancements in the state sector, which now sees working people receiving an improvement on their wages by 49%. Senior citizens, he said, have also seen their pensions being increased by a similar percentage throughout the years while 72,000 persons were removed from the income tax bracket.

“The state has a responsibility to ensure that there is an easing, a lessening of the burden of the working people and those who have reached the age beyond working,” Nagamootoo declared. “All of us must partner; the business, the state, the labour, to ensure that we do better.”

Nagamootoo also spoke to the gathering on the issue of gender equality. He stated that the matter must not only be a slogan, but Guyanese should strive to create an environment where women can be economically strong and independent, resisting the onslaught of male domination.

“Statistics show that there are 750 million people, mostly women, who are working and are still unable to put enough food on the table for their families,” the Prime Minister noted. He added that under-employment is a major factor which contributes to the inability of women to exercise the right to equality in relationships with their gender counterparts.

Nagamootoo addressed the body imploring that the country needed to move ahead from fighting amongst itself to focusing on supporting the advancement and improvement of the nation. “We should be able to focus on the national agenda, where we want to take our society, how we want to improve the lives of our people and how we can make Guyana a country where there is sustainable livelihood based on the availability of decent work, based on the availability of an environment where working people are considered to be an important part of our social development and not just wage workers,” the Prime Ministers commented.

The Prime Minister related that the absence of database systems, which can work to provide useful information to persons looking to invest in Guyana, is a hindrance for job creation. “It must be part and parcel for our government to have open data, and the open data must be that Guyanese and investors must know what are the resources available in the land… that it is good for Agriculture, it is good for aquaculture, it is good for mineral exploitation or extraction,” Nagamootoo recommended.

He also expressed his gratitude to ILO for partnering with Guyana, a partnership which requires the support of all stakeholders involved. “We are grateful for this work that is being done. We’re guided by you constantly as a partner, the Minister began. “There is much more work to be done in Guyana to improve our job creation, to improve the investment climate, to be able to build perfect partnership.”

The signing of the Decent Work Country Programme was done by the Prime Minister, Nagamootoo; Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection with the responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott; Chief Labour Officer of the Ministry of Social Protection, Charles Ogle; General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis; General Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), Dawan Nagasar and Executive Director of Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry Limited (CAGI), Samuel Goolsarran

Lewis in brief remarks said that while his organisation is committed to the efforts of supporting the programme, he hoped that past mistakes would not be repeated. “We cannot sit down and say that, ‘Oh we had a good day…we launched the programme’, and then we allow it to get dust on the desk and shelves,” Lewis cautioned.

The GTUC General Secretary says that he holds the previous administration accountable for their mismanagement of Phase One of the programme which he termed as “something set out to deceive workers and citizens” because while it was promoted, it was never activated. Lewis recommended, that in this phase, the Labour Department should be adequately staffed in order to properly discharge its duties and suggested that a public awareness and education programme be launched to attract persons to come on board with the project.

Executive Director of CAGI, Goolsarran, shared some of Lewis’ views, acknowledging that there was very little follow up during 2012-2015. He said that the second phase of the programme is very challenging, providing a great amount of research data and solid analysis of the country’s situation and as such political dialog going forwards is a necessity.

The Decent Work Country Programme for Guyana, launched yesterday, was developed with the aim of focusing on promoting employment and employability, enhancing fundamental principles and rights at work, social protection and social dialogue. Guyana is the first of its Caribbean counterparts to sign on to the second phase of the project.