– to end the three-month wait for public servants’ salary

THE Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has applauded the move by Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, that public servants would no longer have to wait three months before receiving their salaries.

In an interview with Guyana Chronicle, First Vice-President of GPSU, Dawn Gardener, stated that the union appreciates and welcomes any improvement related to the conditions of service, for the public servants.

“We really appreciate [the] minister’s comment on the way forward. This is the way forward, this is something that we wholeheartedly welcome and we support this,” Gardener expressed.

Gardener stated that the issue of public servants having to wait three months before being paid is an issue that the GPSU has been representing for the past years, “because we too see it as very insensitive to have someone working and being paid months after employment.”

She described the matter of persons being paid three months after being employed as unfair and added, “We’ve even represented matters where persons like that, who are employed for months, and they weren’t paid and could not go to work, and managers were taking disciplinary action against them. That again is insensitive, because these same supervisors or managers are aware that the persons were not in receipt of salaries which pose a challenge for them to get to work.”

Gardener labels the intervention as a “plus” for the GPSU and public servants, since they would no longer have to represent such matters.

During a press conference held by Minister Halley, on Thursday, she stated that many public servants have echoed the issue of having to work for three months before being paid.

“It’s unconscionable. Why would you have somebody working, from time to time, trying to find food, money to get to work for three whole months and not pay them? I think that it is something that should stop immediately,” she stated.
The minister said that she has thus far found no rule or policy that validates the practice and after the month of July 2019, it should no longer be a practice in any government agency.

“I am working with my staff to remove this bugbear from those who are desirous of joining the public service. So, going forward, no one should have to wait beyond one month of being hired to receive their first salary,” Halley indicated.
She added, “Why was it happening all the time? I am not sure, it’s just somebody made it a policy at some point and persons decided in the ministry to take it up as something that they should do. I don’t understand it.”