Our Modern Era

Mar 14, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

One is tempted to pronounce the caption as ERROR. It is simply that in two important areas our ONE Nation continues to function in a ‘colonial’ mindset.

In the first instance, it was while as a colony that the civil service controlled by the British, the ruling was, that they would retire at 55 years — facilitating their return to be employed at ‘Home’. Fast forward unto 2023, and there is now no formal retirement age in the UK.

Back in the Caribbean, our very proactive partner Barbados, observes retirement of its public employees at 62.5 years, after a poll was taken.

While back in Europe, French, citizens have been vociferously protesting, for several weeks now, against their President’s raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

In British Guiana, the two main industries Bauxite and Sugar formalised the retirement age at 65 and 60 years respectively.

The former Canadian owned, along with the General Electric Company (now GPL) continued the practice of retiring employees at age 65 — still current. Like Bookers Sugar Estates (now GuySuCo), all registered private companies have long since agreed with insurance counterparts on a retirement age of sixty — comparable with most, if not all, public sector agencies.

It was President Jagdeo who laid in Parliament the Report of S. V. Jones Associates (as Regulations to the new Audit Act) to transition the traditional Audit Office to the Office of the Auditor General. In the process the Consultants’ recommendation to raise the retirement age of these employees from 55 to 60 years was unanimously approved.

Public Sector Agencies since established have been providing for employees to retire at age 60, the age confirmed with the introduction of National Insurance Scheme. Yet it is not unknown for Public Servants to fall short of necessary contribution requirements for eligibility, for pension moreso in recent times of peremptory terminations of employment.  In either ease, both NIS and contributor lose out. For some inexplicable reason, the Guyana Public Service Union would appear to be amenable to this constriction of its members’ retirement age – the lowest anywhere such a cramped formality exists. Contrastingly however, our Parliamentarians enjoy more generous retirement benefits.

Meanwhile, all our governments have neglected to attend to the constipated job structure in the Teaching Profession, which they inherited from the Colonial era. It has been a remarkable display of indifference, if not contempt, for the profession; and indeed spiritual development of the very human beings who initiate the production of: other teachers, public servants, legal and health practitioners, engineers, agriculturalist, accountants and other great scholars, with a level of personal sacrifice not required of any of the aforementioned.

Teachers consist of a group whose performance is scrutinised on a daily basis by students, parents and politicians (also as parents). Additionally, as is well known, many have to contribute financially and materially to the Ministry’s commitments.

And yet, they are the poorest paid of all Public Servants — a fact that continues to be ignored, however derisibly, by their own Guyana Teachers’ Union. Interestingly, the public congratulations are for their individual successes, even who do not share accolades received with their mentors.

In the meantime, quite apart from the fact that they do not share the generous benefits impulsively offered annually to colleague public servants, there are not considered worthy of performance evaluation and consequently do not earn any increments out of the world’s most emaciated set of salary scales. Nor are they allowed to be treated as ‘Contracted Employees’ in the Public Service who can splurge on GRATUITY every six months – at the rate pf 22.5% of monthly salary – cumulating to 90% in two years.

As mentioned earlier their status (?) has been steadfastly maintained since the colonial faux pas which rivets the highest level in the salary structure — Grade 19 – to a Fixed Salary – surely an exceptional situation, at least amongst Caricom ‘Nations’, who incidentally must be quite bemused at our active negligence.

When is this Administration going to recognise the fragility of this compensation ‘infrastructure’ and arrange to invite suitably qualified experts to review and recommend conditions of employment for our teachers that will make them feel a valued part of ‘ONE NATION’ of which generations to come could replicate?

Regards,

E. B. John

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• Barbados, E.B. John, Era, Modern, Nation

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