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Enough is Enough…without public servants this nation grinds to a halt – GTUC
Guyana has become a tale of two societies where income inequality is growing within the rank and file while corruption runs amok and the executive and cohorts gorge themselves; a society where human dignity is guaranteed to some and trampled for others.
This is the view held by the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) which has come out in condemnation of the proposed five per cent increase in salary for Public Servants.
The Trades Union umbrella organisation says that it stands in solidarity with the public sector employees in their just and fair fight for equality under the Laws of Guyana.
The daily scene outside of GPHC as workers continue to reject the proposed 5% pay increase.
According to GTUC, for 12 years now, public servants have had to deal with the disregard for their right to Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining.
GTUC said that the proposed pay increase is in violation of the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual, protected in Article 147 of the Guyana Constitution and Section 23 of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Act.
According to the union, “The revelation by the political opposition that government has not spent the budgeted amount for Public Servants, and given the squandermania of taxpayers’ money, to hear the Minister of Public Service, Jennifer Westford, say that the government cannot afford to pay more and that the five-percent is adequate, smacks not only at a corrupt leadership but one that is also contemptuous of the people.”
According to the public pronouncement by the GTUC, Public Servants have been the recipient of torrential vilification and demonisation over the years, and it is they who turn the State’s wheels of production.
“Without them this nation grinds to a halt. Continuing to carry this great responsibility, undertaking yeoman service, giving of their sweat day in and day out, sometimes working under difficult and unhealthy conditions, it is unacceptable to treat them with contempt. Enough is enough.”
GTUC reminded that public servants are workers of the State and every government has the primary sovereign responsibility to set the tone and ensure that citizens are treated with dignity and respect.
“Today where the Executive continues to display contempt for the traditional public service workers and those employed at the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), even as it showcased its respect for the rights and freedoms of sugar workers and their union, GAWU with the recent signing of a Wage Agreement, a message is clearly being sent to some in this country that the laws will not be respected for them.”
GTUC said President Donald Ramotar, came from the bowels of the trade union movement and held executive positions in GAWU and the original FITUG.
“The President chairs a Cabinet that includes Minister Westford, once a militant activist of the GPSU and served as a representative on its General Council. The Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, played a leading role in changing Labour’s landscape and was once amongst the militant faction in its leadership.”
GTUC recalled the 1991 Nurses strike under the Desmond Hoyte administration. In 1991 Ramotar sat with former labour colleagues at the CCWU’s Headquarters and agreed the salaries paid to nurses were inadequate, according to GTUC.
That group agreed that to fix the problem, the first requirement was to establish a Real Wage after which annual increases will be applied, with inflation factored in.
The unions at the time aided in sustaining the nurses’ strike by pooling and contributing money.
“In 2013 Public Service Real Wage is worse than it was in 1991. In 2013 the disrespect for the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual is worse under a party who makes claim to being working class…The society must not be fooled. What is happening today to workers under the PPP administration is naked thuggery.”
GTUC in its public missive said that President Ramotar and Ministers Webster and Gopaul are called upon to demonstrate to the nation, by their actions, that their sojourn in the trade union movement was one of conviction.
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