THE Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) Company Ltd. and Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU), on Wednesday, signed a collective labour agreement for a six per cent salary increase and training programmes for GTT employees.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Labour’s boardroom in the presence of subject minister, Joseph Hamilton and the Chief Labour officer, Dhaneshwar Deonarine.

In brief remarks to the media following the signing, GTT’s CEO, Damian Blackburn, said since his appointment he has worked closely with the union to resolved a number of outstanding issues the company has faced over the years.

He opined that the company will only be able to fulfill its mandate and mission if the two bodies are able to work collaboratively.
“We have been able to work with the union team and I believe that we work very well together. Sometimes there are difficult things to discuss but we always approach it collaboratively, with an objective in mind,” Blackburn said.

He explained that the agreement will see workers of GTT receiving a six per cent salary increase from January 2023. Additionally, the agreement features a clause for open discussions for an additional increase in the next two years.

“The deal that we have reached is covering a number of topics. We have the pay increases. We recognise that the pay increase we had in October isn’t quite sufficient…we have increased the pay from January 2023 to six per cent.”

The company made further commitments to award additional increases based on company and individual performance levels as well as major investments in comprehensive fibre skills training for its technicians.
“One of the biggest things in this agreement as well, is a commitment to resolve issues and really focus on looking forward. We made commitments into a transformational training programme for our technicians to make sure that they are fully trained in the skills of the 21st century,” he added.

In October 2021, the company had signed an agreement for a 2 per cent increase which had taken effect from February of this year. At the time, the company had vowed to review the agreement for further increases.

Meanwhile, GPTWU’s President, Harold Shepherd, said that, over the last year, the union has been able to address the backlog of several issues they would have brought to the attention of GTT’s management.
Shepherd added that after successful negotiations, some of these issues were resolved resulting in the agreement that was signed on Wednesday.

“GTT as we all know as a company has been around Guyana for the last 30 years and GTT obviously would have transformed the telecoms sector across the length and breadth of Guyana. With that in mind, based on the jobs that the employees would have performed over the years and [the] union’s efforts to ensure that they are compensated accordingly, we would have had several outstanding matters that were not addressed and since Mr. Blackburn took over the leadership of the company some of those issues, we have been able to address,” he said.

Shepherd further explained that agreement will see field technicians undergoing a six-month training programme and, based on their performance, promotions will be in effect.

“Those employees, or technicians I should say will undergo a six-month training. At the end of that six months…once they have performed exceptionally well above 80 per cent … they [will] receive in terms of promotion from Technician One to Technician Two.”

In his remarks, Minister Hamilton lauded the two entities for their collaborative efforts in resolving issues faced by workers as well as, the implementation of training programmes to boost personal development and healthy work environments.