TIME FOR WORKERS TO GET THEIR SHARE OF THE PIE

Oct 01, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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It would be considered unconventional and blasphemous for the PPPC government to say anything contrary to the private sector being the engine of economic growth. The private sector has the government “locked”.
And yet this is the same PPPC government which twenty years ago rode to power and continues to ride into office on the backs of working class support and which during election time likes to remind the poor that it is committed to their interests.
For twenty years, the private sector has asked for benefits and gotten these benefits. Some companies even got concessions which it was later discovered were not fully compliant with the law. The concessions were not withdrawn; the laws were amended to bring them in compliance with the concessions granted.
Such is the sway that the private sector in Guyana holds on the government. Whatever the private sector wants, especially the business community, it will get.
Flour prices have risen by 6 percent as a result of higher acquisition costs. No one can expect the local flour mill to absorb higher acquisition costs. Their operations are bulk operations and therefore it is logical that they will have to pass on these costs.
But it’s unconscionable for bakeries that now face a mere 6 percent increase in the cost of their main raw material to pass on that cost to consumers. And you can bet that bread and pastry prices in some outlets are going to increase far more than 6 percent, when instead this increased cost for flour should have been absorbed by the bakeries and pastry makers.
The government has not said anything so far. It has not discouraged the bakeries from increasing their prices. It has not said that any increase would be unjustifiable given that it is only the price of flour prices that have been marginally increased and not the other costs for making flour- based products.  It has also not tried to limit the degree to which bread prices are going to increase.
But gasoline prices at the pumps are now $229 per liter. The mini buses have not had a fare increase for years but yet every time fuel prices soar and transportation operators demand an increase they are told that this would not be allowed. They are threatened with regulation; the public is told not to pay any increase. A standoff ensues and the minibus operators lose. But you can bet your bottom dollar that when bread prices are increased, the government will not try to stop those increases.
At GUYEXPO the government continued to shower praises on the business community. For twenty years they have been doing this. The private sector has been described as the engine of economic growth. That may well be true but what about the workers?
If the private sector is the engine of economic growth, then the workers have to be the wheels of growth. Without the wheels moving, the vehicle of economic growth will go nowhere.
Yet while the government is often willing to bend over backwards to help the business community, it seems unwilling to deal with the problems of wages which are so central to the survival of workers.
Part of the problem may be due to the attitude of the representative organizations for workers and for unions in Guyana but at the least one would have expected that the government would have taken a far more compassionate stance when it comes to the interests of workers.
The government of course cannot increase wages to the point that it becomes a drag on productivity and inflation. But at least establish a living wage and work progressively towards narrowing the gap between existing wages and that living wage.
The government cannot be expected to withdraw concessions that it has given to the business community. This would be acting in bad faith and send a wrong signal. But at least the government can link concessions to job creation and towards verified reinvestment of profits in the economy.
The government needs large scale mining but at least it can limit the number of mining concessions it gives to medium and large scale miners and increase the number of concessions “lotteried” to individuals. Instead of a mere forty persons drawing a lottery for mining claims, there should be four hundred each year.
There is a one lap top per family initiative. Well how about one house lot per family initiative. There are some families in which father, adult son and adult daughter are each owning house lots and all in the same scheme. There are cases where one person applies for a house lot and then the common law husband or wife applies for another house lot. In the meantime, the poor worker in need of a house lot has to wait his turn.
It is good that there is a GUYEXPO to allow the rich businesses to showcase what they have but how about a jobs’ fair to allow for the unemployed to secure jobs? How about holding this fair in rural Guyana so that the thousands of young people who are unemployed can at least know what is available and have some chance of obtaining a job.
This will benefit the private sector too because as is known there are many contractors and other business people who are struggling today to find enough and suitable workers to the extent that some of them are contemplating importing skilled and unskilled labour.

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