Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 24, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Prices do not go down in Guyana; they go up. This statement has held true in Guyana for a long time— a very long time.
People do not expect prices to decline. In recent times, one of the fastest rising costs for citizens has not been petrol. It has been labour.
The cost of work done by a simple handyman has become extremely prohibitive. There was once a time, not long ago, when paying a carpenter or mason $3,000 a day was considered exorbitant. Today these guys are demanding six and seven thousand dollars per day. And while they are calling for more money, most of which is not declared to the taxman as income, the productivity of these workers have diminished.
This is why most citizens now have resorted back to pay per job rather than per day. If you pay per day, the workers will drag out the work. But if you pay per job, then they will work much quicker than usual. But generally productivity is very low.
Now consider the plight of the sugar industry. More than half of the traditional workforce is no longer on the job. And the reason is that, for less strenuous work they can earn seven to eight thousand dollars per day in the construction sector. So why bother to cut cane?
This is a relationship that those who are attempting to reverse the fortunes of the sugar industry have ignored. If a cane cutter can earn six to seven thousand dollars per day doing labour work in home construction, then why would he want to return to the back-breaking cane fields?
If there is more remunerative work outside of the canfields it is logical that there will be pull factors encouraging cane cutters to leave cane harvesting. Labour costs in the construction sector are hurting the sugar industry because more remunerative work is always available outside of the sugar plantation.
The price of goods and the price of labour simply do not come down. Or so many persons thought until the invasion of the commercial sector by Chinese businesses. They have flooded the sector with cheaper imports and this has impacted positively on the consumers.
What has happened in relation to Chinese goods can also happen in relation to labour. There are Chinese labourers working on major projects in Guyana. And their productivity, as witnessed in the record time that the Marriott Hotel went up, is simply astounding.
There are many contractors in the construction sector in Guyana who would love to be able to employ Chinese labour. While the cost of the labour may not be cheaper, their productivity will ensure tremendous savings in constructions costs.
In the long run, the use of foreign labour may even drive the cost of labour down, sufficient enough to encourage cane cutters who have left the fields to return. The government should seriously consider allowing local contractors to import labour. It is the only way to bring greater competition to labour markets.
Labour costs are spiraling out of control in Guyana. This has increased the cost of living in Guyana. Even the junkies want a jewel and a crown to do ordinary work. You can hardly afford to pay them for casual work. People are complaining about the high cost of labour in Guyana.
I would not be surprised if the owners of minibuses and the hire cars use increased labour costs as a pretext for not reducing their fares.
The private transportation operators have to find an excuse to refuse to lower their tariffs in the face of reduced costs of fuel.
When fuel prices rose, these operators demanded an increase in fares arguing that a tank of gas was costing them far more. Now that that same tank of gas is costing less, they are the ones under pressure to reduce the tariffs to consumers.
Right now, the private transportation barons are stumped. They cannot yet find an excuse for not lowering their fares. They cannot claim that spare parts and tire prices have increased. This is not so.
So in order to expropriate the surplus value that they will gain from the reduced fuel prices, their only resort will be to claim that labour costs are high. This will be their excuse.
It is time to ask the China or the Indian to rebuild a railway in Guyana. It is time to bring some real competition to the local private transportation sector through water taxis, railways and big buses. Bring back Tata!
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