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Increase the pay of the police and teachers first

Sep 03, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government had adopted a progressive position in relation to the public service condition of work and benefits. The government now seems to have developed amnesia in relation to this policy, and instead, seems to want to behave just like the PPPC did towards public servants.

This has to be the greatest disappointment of the new government so far. It did promise significant increases in wages and salaries for public servants. Then it backpedaled from this promise.
The government was excused for its failed promise to the workers of Guyana because it enjoyed considerable goodwill. That goodwill is now evaporating, because despite increased tax collection to the tune of billions of dollars, and despite the admission that only about 50% of the budgeted amounts for this year has been spent so far, the government is still tenaciously holding on to the contention that it can only afford increases of between one and 10% to workers.
If VAT collections in the first half of the year are up by three billion dollars, and if gold revenues have gone through the roof, then what is preventing the government from paying higher wages to public servants?
The government has found itself in an unpopular position, because it has retreated from the progressive stance that it took in relation to the conditions of service and benefits for public servants. The government took the positive decision to establish a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the conditions of service and benefits of public servants.
The report of this COI should have formed the basis of simultaneous or joint negotiations with the various unions representing public servants and teachers. The government, however, seems to have forgotten that it has a report.
The government is doing exactly what the PPPC did. It is saying this is all we can afford and it is now saying, if reports in the media are accurate, that it will pay the proposed sums even if the unions refuse. It cannot take the latter stance, since this would be in violation of proper industrial relations conduct. It is hoped that any report of the government planning to impose wage increases onto public servants without the consent of the union is false, because this would be a backward step on the part of the government.
There is still the issue of negotiations with the Guyana Teachers’ Union. If the government is serious about education, as it says, then it has to do two things immediately. It has to weed out – far faster than the PPPC was doing – all untrained teachers from the system. Once teachers are not trained or graduates of a university, they should have no place in the teaching profession.
Education standards are not going to improve by tolerating mediocrity. Untrained and non-graduate teachers have to be removed more quickly from the system. To attract replacements of quality and to ensure that teachers have an incentive to stay in the profession, teachers’ salaries need to be increased immediately by around 50%, not one to 10%.
The next category of workers whose salaries have to be addressed immediately is the police. It is being reported that there was an armed stickup at the Airstrip Bar in Ogle, traditionally one of safest bars in the country. Patrons were reportedly robbed.
The effect of that robbery on one of the safest watering holes in Guyana will be chilling. Guyanese are going to stay at home and not go out to these drinking spots. This will dampen the entertainment sector and kill social life in Guyana.
You cannot expect police to arrest the crime situation when they have to worry about supplementary income. The police have not, at least not as yet, denied reports, that there is a racket in the force in which junior traffic ranks split their illegal takings with certain senior officials. If corruption is to be arrested and the police ranks are to smash gun crimes, there is a need for a 10% increase in salaries for junior ranks.
This idea of paying the police and the teachers the same as public servants is not the way to go. It will ensure greater professionalism in police work and better results for students.
A wages policy must be premised on the priorities that the government has set itself. The two most important priorities are education and security.
The government should stop saying that it does not have the money. The government has to pay teachers and police better, and it has to do it now. The army and the other public servants can wait, but they do deserve a better offer than the present one on the table.

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