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City Hall collects $53M in taxes from Govt.
– municipal workers likely to be paid today
Government’s payment of $53M to City Hall, representing its rates and taxes for the last quarter of this year, is expected to boost the financial capacity of the municipality to allow for the payment of workers today.
Deputy Mayor Robert Williams
This disclosure was made by Deputy Mayor Robert Williams yesterday. Williams divulged that in addition to the government’s payment a sum of $18M, which was garnered from intensified tax collection, will aid the payment of workers even as the municipality seeks to get a bank loan.
“We are expecting a call from a bank at 14:00 hours (yesterday) to know whether an overdraft turn to a loan will be granted to us…”
The municipality, although it had intensified its revenue collection process recently, was unable to pay workers wages and salaries before Christmas Day, which had caused some union-represented workers to engage industrial action last Wednesday.
Among the areas that were included in the action were the abattoir, the Maternal and Child Health, Public Health and Food Hygiene, and the Environmental Health departments of the municipality, as well as the Stone Depot and the Solid Waste Department.
According to the Deputy Mayor, it is expected that once the bank loan and the government’s payment were available yesterday the workers will no doubt be paid today.
“We are hoping that good judgement will prevail so that the workers could be paid,” Williams noted.
The municipality is obligated to pay some 900 workers, of whom about 60 per cent are represented by the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) and the remainder by the Guyana Local Government Officers’ Union (GLGOU).
According to President of the GLGOU Andrew Garnett yesterday, the workers have been advised to sustain industrial action, although the municipal administration had informed that payment was likely today.
Garnett added that the GLGOU is desirous of seeing workers paid not only their December salaries but also the retroactive 10 per cent increase the union had accepted for GLGOU-represented workers earlier this year.
“The administration (municipality) called me and related that the Minister of Local Government had assured that government will pay up $53M for outstanding rates and taxes…But they (municipality) must know that they have to pay the workers a retroactive amount too.”
Since July last GLGOU was able to complete a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the municipality addressing the improvement of the services rendered to the city, an urgent need for the expansion of the revenue base, as well as the welfare of the workers, which includes remuneration.
The MOU, according to Garnett, was signed between himself, the Acting Town Clerk Ms Yonette Pluck, Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Finance Committee Mr Robert Williams, and Public Relations Officer Mr Royston King.
And, according to Garnett, the municipality had assured that the workers would have been paid a retroactive sum by the beginning of November.
However, only about 50 per cent of the monies were paid, which represents a breach in the agreement, Garnett said.
And until workers are paid, Garnett said, they will continue to retaliate, pointing out that workers have since lost all confidence with the municipal administration. He disclosed that workers of the Abattoir, the Day Care Centres, the Maternal and Child Health, Public Health Clinics, Vector Control and Food Hygiene Departments of the municipality did not operate up to yesterday.
The Treasury Department and the markets were however allowed to operate since,
“We don’t want to defeat ourselves by preventing the collection of revenue, and we don’t want the people to suffer, so our engineers are still overseeing kokers and sluices…This comes as part of our humanitarian motto…but the industrial action will continue until workers are paid,” Garnett said.
But, according to Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, only two departments of the municipality have been seemingly affected by the workers’ union-instigated action.
“I want to congratulate the workers for their commitment during the holidays and their support in clearing the blockages of the drainage system… and we will continue together to prepare for the rainy situation until the end of January,” the Deputy Mayor said.
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