Municipal workers engage sit-in because of non-payment

Jul 01, 2009 News

– As Mayor Green amplifies City Hall financial constraint

Municipal staffers represented by the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) have engaged in a sit-in over their unpaid salaries for last month.
And according to General Secretary of the union, Carvil Duncan, the workers, who represent almost 60 percent of the workforce, will continue with the action until they are paid in full.
He said that the union was forced to take action as there was no communication from the administration of the municipality advising of its inability to pay the workers last month.
But according to City Mayor Hamilton Green, at a press conference, yesterday, the unions representing the municipal workers – the Guyana Local Government Officers Union and the Guyana Labour Union – are fully aware of the municipality’s financial dilemma.
He noted, though, that he has been advised by the Treasurer and the Town Clerk that the municipality is currently mobilising enough funds to pay the workers before the end of the week.
Appeals have been made to property owners, the business community and citizens in general to pay up their outstanding taxes, Green disclosed.
The Mayor, however, cautioned that those union members who have taken a position to sit-in will in fact not be paid.
“Today (yesterday) I advised the Town Clerk that we are not paying people for not working because that will worsen the situation. I want to send that message with clarity…If you want to go on strike, go on strike, but you will not be paid,” the City Mayor warned.
However, the GLU General Secretary told this newspaper yesterday that the union is prepared to advance its action to a full-blown strike if the municipality holds to the Mayor’s threat not to pay the workers.
At the press conference, Mayor Green related that the situation that the municipality faces is beyond its control.
“We need to let the public know that there are many millions outstanding that we have not paid to contractors, we have not satisfied the financial arrangement with the group that came to look at our Information Technology Department…this is a recurring problem that we have.”
And even as efforts are being made to unearth much needed funds through the collection of taxes, Mayor Green related that it must be taken into account that there exists a cumbersome and almost unfriendly legal and judicial system which has been a constraint to the municipality.
However, the major issue, according to the Mayor is that the municipality is not allowed to collect and mobilise resources to satisfy the needs of the public.
“This morning I was with the Clerk of Markets at the Bourda Market and there we saw that even as we collect rent from the stallholders the cost to maintain effectively and repair the market on a regular base is enormous.”
And even as he expressed profound apologies for the non-payment of staffers, the Mayor cautioned that “unless the council can be allowed the opportunity to mobilise some more funds, as we proposed since 1994, this will remain a recurring decimal.”
He said that the money collected by the municipality is barely sufficient most times to pay salaries, and do some current works. It even disallows the entity to plan properly and to do repair works in many parts of the city.
Mayor Green yesterday made a public appeal to President Bharrat Jagdeo and his Cabinet to release to the municipality a portion of the Lotto funds, which he claimed is not being properly deposited.
“The Lotto was the idea of Mayor and Councillors in 1994. The government said it could not consider this because they expected objections from the religious communities. Within eight plus months the idea was hijacked, the lotto was off and running and today billions are garnered by the government and nobody, neither the Auditor General nor the people, have a clear idea of how that money is being spent…
“In other circumstances I would say misspent. It is a serious crime for this to continue and there is no public outcry,” Green asserted.

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Municipal workers engage sit-in because of non-payment

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