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Minister no show at GPSU International Public Service Day address
After waiting for almost two hours yesterday afternoon, public servants walked out of a scheduled meeting to celebrate International Public Service Day 2013. The Public Service Minister was a no show.
Minister Jennifer Westford was the special speaker to address public servants who would have had an opportunity to ask questions and to relate to the minister, issues facing them as state workers.
Workers walk out almost two hours after waiting for Public Service Minister.
The workers started leaving the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) building in groups, unwilling to wait any longer. GPSU staff sought to stall the crowd with questions, and updates on past and upcoming events for the union’s 90th anniversary but that was not as successful as hoped.
The union said that in recognition of United Nations International Public Service Day 2013 which would be celebrated under the theme: “Transformative e-Government and Innovation: Creating a Better Future for all”, the Minister consented to address Public Servants on the Government’s Vision and Concept of the Public Service.
The address was scheduled for 13:30 hrs at the Union’s Headquarters at 160 Regent and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Bourda.
GPSU head Patrick Yarde told Kaieteur News that June 23 is the United Nations public service day and it was agreed with the Minister to have discourse about the government’s vision and the concept of the public service.
He said the discourse would have given an insight into the administrations expectations and plans for state workers, plus an opportunity for healthy discussions between the Minister and the public workers.
He said, “We were advised that the Minister was called away to an emergency. In my view I have never experienced a discourtesy by the Minister and there must be very good reasons why she couldn’t make it.” It was mentioned that the Minister had an important meeting at Office of the President.
Yarde continued that there are quite a few things happening in the public service and the workers would have surely been informed of some of the things they should expect from the government.
He said, however, that communication between the union and the government is not as efficient as it ought to be. Very often, he stated, members would tell the union about issues affecting them at their various locations. This led the union to dispatch a letter to the public service Permanent Secretary, who in a reply said discussions could have been facilitated.
Since the union was celebrating its anniversary, Yarde said it was felt that this was a perfect time to communicate with union members, especially since the major employer is the government. He “wished as much as possible to have them (workers) directly informed from the principles as to how they view them, what they expect and what they intend to do for them.”
Workers from various arms of the public service were available yesterday. They came from the judiciary, energy, aviation, health etc. During discourse with GPSU officials, workers strongly expressed that they were not receiving correspondence from the union at their various places of employment.
While senior union staff explained to the workers that indeed relevant information was being sent to their workplace as it related to union business, workers charged that they were not being informed of any information reaching their work places that they should be aware of.
One of the major concerns of public workers is an increase in salary. Last year workers were given a five percent increase to salaries and wages retroactive to January 1. Yarde had stated that for 17 years, the government had been imposing arbitrary increases in wages and salaries on public workers.
He stated, too, that the government refused negotiations with the union and has not increased workers’ travelling allowances for the past 17 years and meal allowances for the past 16 years.
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