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City workers get paid
Some 200 Georgetown municipal workers finally received their salary for May yesterday, but not before a noisy protest in the compound where they denounced City Council administration, the Mayor, and even their union.
Deliverance of this long overdue pay to the workers brings to an end another episode in the saga of continuous late payment, disappointment of the employees when they seek to withdraw their money from the bank, followed by protests, and more promises of pay coming.
GLU field Officer, Clarence Whitehead (second left with cap) updates union General Secretary Carvil Duncan on what resulted from his latest talks with the City Council in the presence of protesting workers in the municipal compound. Much to the annoyance of workers, Mr Duncan arrived approximately two hours after they began protesting.
Their last disappointing experience was Tuesday following a promise Monday morning by Mayor Hamilton Green that salaries would be deposited in the bank and that the money would be there for them within 24 hours.
But repeated checks of accounts with their ATM through Tuesday evening – long past the promised 24 hours – turned up no money.
The workers then followed up their Monday sit-in protest that triggered the Mayor’s promise, by again putting down tools and gathering in the municipal compound yesterday.
After Town Clerk Yonette Pluck engaged in discussions with the protesting workers, she held a meeting with Guyana Labour Union Field Officer Clarence Whitehead and assured him that the workers would be able to withdraw their money from the bank after 6pm.
When Mr Whitehead delivered the news there was an uproar among the disaffected city employees. Later in the day Kaieteur News was told that the pay time was pulled back to 3pm yesterday, and just after 4pm the union representative told this newspaper that the money was deposited with the bank and workers were withdrawing their pay.
The information yesterday about the additional $12 million needed to fully meet May pay package appears to contradict what Mayor Green told the workers at a Monday meeting.
He had said that following a meeting with Local Government Minister, Kellawan Lall, it was agreed that the money would be obtained from a source that was not named at the meeting.
Union Representative Whitehead, however, told this newspaper yesterday that the Town Clerk said that the money was derived from City Council revenue garnered Tuesday.
While noisily complaining about their overdue May salaries, workers earlier yesterday morning voiced concern that their June pay date will fall on Sunday and there was no assurance that finances will be there for their timely remuneration.
At the Monday meeting with Mayor Green, the Town Clerk had said there are no guarantees of the June payment coming before 1 July.
The union has arranged with the city administrators to meet workers this morning so issues of late payments can be trashed out.
Union representative Whitehead had told this newspaper that if there are no satisfactory assurances given to workers at this meeting, action – that includes a full blown strike – could be called.
GLU represents the majority of city council workers.
The workers’ protest yesterday was noisier by far than that on Monday. This might be so because the Monday protest followed disappointment at the bank last Friday when they were told the money would be there, and drew blank but remained hopeful.
Despair seemed to have overtaken the fewer than 60 workers who gathered yesterday following the second broken promise.
That gloomy outlook was also apparent in the attitude of Mr Whitehead. “The same thing they say today they said before, and they failed to honour it,” he said while reporting the latest City Hall promise of payment. “Even as they speak with those strong words, my problem is how can I believe them?”
A worker voiced what appeared to be a common sentiment among his colleagues, “We accepting lies too long from these people”.
They also directed venom at the GLU General Secretary. “Duncan like the President [Jagdeo]. He touring every two weeks,” a worker said contending that Mr Duncan often travels out of Guyana instead of being present to represent them.
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