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M&CC withholds workers’ NIS, PAYE deductions to pay wages and salaries

Sep 16, 2010 News

The Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) has been breaking the law in order to pay its workers their wages and salaries.
City Mayor Hamilton Green admitted to this state of affairs yesterday when he addressed a press conference at City Hall. The municipality has been failing to pay over workers Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) deductions in order to ensure that its 800-odd workforce is paid the monthly remuneration.
According to Acting Town Clerk Mrs Yonette Pluck-Cort, the municipality continues to experience difficulty in meetings its salaries and wages bill for almost every month of the year with very few exceptions. “In order to ensure that the workers receive their next salary, and we know it is not the best thing, we will not make the payment of NIS and PAYE which is usually pay later.” Acting City Treasurer, Andrew Meredith, said that the last payment of the deductions was made last April.
Mayor Green, in admitting that the development is a very serious matter, asserted that to every situation there is always the other side of the coin.
“While the administration has attempted to even break the law to satisfy the concerns of workers we had the most right and honourable General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) in a letter, who is knowledgeable of the financial plight of this council, saying that the council is deliberately paying workers late.”
The Mayor further noted that while he does not think that the workers are in agreement with the delayed payment the question that faces the municipality on a constant basis is whether to pay part or none of the monies owed to workers.
“At least they would have money to buy books and to buy some food until we make other arrangements…,” Mayor Green disclosed.
The delayed payment was first highlighted as a matter of concern during the municipality’s most recent statutory meeting.
According to Green, yesterday, “except for the fact that our statutory meetings are public this is a matter that we hope to not sweep under the carpet but to hold in suspended animation until we are financially able to correct the situation.
“We are at this moment working within the courts and within our own competence to collect as much taxes as possible.” It was some time ago, Green said, that the municipality has identified a cadre of workers who have been tasked with venturing out into the field to deliver notices to defaulting property owners.
This process, the Mayor said, was expected to be boosted with the municipality’s introduction of an amnesty initiative, which was geared at allowing defaulters to honour their civic responsibility without having to pay the exorbitant interest that non-payment usually attracts. Some persons have responded to this initiative but there were yet some defaulters, which the municipality have since been forced to take before the court.
The municipality has since been amplifying its efforts and has even been working in collaboration with the private sector

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