GPSU officially rejects Govt.’s ‘final offer’

Sep 03, 2016 News

-says will return to bargaining table

The Guyana Public Service Union after its General Council meeting yesterday at the

The General Council representatives following their meeting yesterday.

Union’s headquarters, indicated that it has officially rejected the ‘final offer’ proposed by the Government of Guyana’s negotiating team headed by Reginald Brotherson, Permanent Secretary Department of Public Service.
Following discussions at the meeting, the General Council mandated the Executive Council and the GPSU’s negotiating team to reject the offer.
Additionally, the Executive Council and the Union’s negotiating Team have been instructed by the General Council to observe the rules of the legally binding agreement between the Government and the Union for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes and return to the bargaining table.
The government had made a 10% to 1% differentiated salary increase which it described as its final offer. The Union made public the details of the proposed offer calling it an absurdity.
According to the government, the differentiated approach sought to provide the greatest relief to public servants within the lower salary bands of the Public Service Wages and Salaries Structure.
The Union, however, had proposed for salary increases spread across a three-year period.
It was proposed that for Year one (January to December 2016) a flat increase of $7500 per month would be added to the salary of public servants at December 31, 2015, as well as the amount payable at the minimum and maximum of each of bands one to 14 of the schedule of salaries in the Public Service.
This was to be accompanied by a 25% increase across-the-board for each public servant, as well as to the amount payable at the minimum and maximum bands.
A $7,000 per month January to December 2017 was proposed to be added to the salary at December 31, 2016, and to minimum and maximum bands. In addition, a 20% increase across-the-board to the salary as at December 2016 to the amount payable at the minimum and maximum bands.
For year three, January to December 2018 it was proposed that there should be a flat increase of $9,000 per month added to the salary at December 31, 2017. Also, a 20% increase across-the-board to the salary as at December 2017, of each person employed in the public sector.
The Union also took into consideration inflation and therefore proposed that for the three years there shall be an additional increase as determined by the Bureau of Statistics. A response to the Government’s offer will be forthcoming after a meeting of its General Council.
An added reason for the resolution yesterday to return to the bargaining table was made since negotiations remain incomplete for other public sector agencies, which include the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Guyana Revenue Authority, Guyana Geology & Mines Commission, Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, Guyana Power & Light Inc., Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Standards, National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute, Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission, Guyana Energy Agency, Dependents Pension Fund, Guyana Post Office Corporation, Central Housing and Planning Authority, Kuru Kuru Coop College and the Guyana Livestock Development Authority.
The Union further believes that the government can afford the increase since the Ministry of Finance has confirmed that less than half of the allocations in the 2016 budget have been utilized. This is coupled with the revelations in the Mid-Year Report of 2016 where it was stated at Appendix E4, 6141 that other Employment Costs totalled $6,855,043,000 and not a single dollar was spent.