PRESIDENT, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali recently announced substantial salary increases to several categories of health sector workers. This, he said, is in keeping with a PPP/C Manifesto promise to upgrade the living and working conditions of the nation’s workers. Only recently, the President announced an eight per cent, across-the-board salary increase to all public sector employees retroactive to January 1, 2022.?

Significantly, the increases to the salaries of healthcare workers which will take effect from January 2023, will build on the increases paid to public sector employees, which will be a significant boost to the income levels of health sector workers.

Over 5,000 healthcare workers will benefit from the increases, which will boost their annualised disposable income by over $1.5 billion.

According to President Ali, the increases represent a further instalment of the government’s unwavering commitment to continue the improvement of the working conditions of our employees in the public sector and indeed all Guyanese.

The fact is that public sector employees, and for that matter workers on the whole, can expect to see an overall improvement in their standard of living under the PPP/C administration, which philosophically and ideologically is working-class oriented.

Salary increases for public servants are, therefore, embedded in the working-class DNA of the PPP/C administration, unlike that of the PNC, which was responsible for the pauperisation of public sector employees over its nearly three decades of dictatorial and authoritarian rule.

One consequence of such undemocratic rule was the prolonged economic decline which characterised the greater part of PNC dictatorial rule. As the economy declined, wages and salaries became increasingly low with soaring levels of inflation which severely eroded the purchasing power of the Guyanese working people.

It was not until the return of democratic rule on October 5, 1992 and the return of the PPP/C to the seat of power that the purchasing power of the Guyanese people began to incrementally improve.

However, decades of economic mismanagement and retrogression continue to be felt despite the best efforts of the PPP/C to improve the economic and social well-being of the Guyanese people. It is a fact that wages and salaries in Guyana still lag behind several countries in the Anglo-phone Caribbean, an indication of the extent of the economic devastation inflicted on the Guyanese economy and by extension on the working and living conditions of the working people.

President Ali and the PPP/C administration is committed to bridging the income gap between Guyanese and their regional counterparts, and to a significant degree this is already showing tangible results.

The brain drain of Guyanese skilled workers to the Caribbean and North America over the years has declined significantly as the Guyana economy becomes increasingly consolidated. And, with increasing revenues from the emerging petroleum sector, things will only get better and better with each passing day.

The health sector workers are the most recent beneficiaries of this economic dynamism but it will certainly not end there. Considering the growth of the economy, projected to be among the fastest in the world thanks to our emerging will, all Guyanese can expect to see steady improvements in their quality of life.

Only recently, Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo announced across-the-board increases to sugar workers comparable to that given to public sector employees.

The decision by President Ali to substantially increase the emoluments of health sector employees is a welcome development which will most likely impact positively on the professionalism of the sector, while at the same time serve to minimise the loss of doctors and nurses to “greener pastures.”

It is a fact that a significant number of our trained professionals in the health sector have, over the years, been migrating to North America and other countries.

This most recent initiative will hopefully serve as an incentive for our health professionals to remain and serve, and contribute to an enhanced quality of health care delivery to the Guyanese people. The health of the nation is our most precious national asset and the PPP/C administration must be given full credit for making the health of the nation a top national priority.