8% retroactive salary increase for public servants – President Ali

…permanent salary for health workers, disciplined services being reviewed

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Thursday announced an eight per cent salary increase for all public servants as his government continues to implement measures to improve the lives of all Guyanese.
In a live broadcast to the Nation Thursday evening, the Head of State explained that this increase will be retroactive to January 1, 2022.
“My government will be paying an across-the-board increase of eight per cent to public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services, constitutional office holders, as well as Government pensioners,” he declared.
According to the Head of State, work will commence immediately to ensure that this increase is processed and paid to eligible employees together with their December salary.
In addition, the President also indicated that further announcements will be made next week regarding specific categories of public sector employees.
“I have instructed those options be identified for adjustment to the salaries paid to a number of specific categories of public sector employees. These include, in the first phase, ranks of the Police Force, Prison Service, and Fire Service. Additionally, a similar exercise is currently being conducted and recommendations being made in relation to specific categories of employees in our public healthcare system, including nurses, interns, doctors, and other healthcare professionals,” the Guyanese Leader said.
President Ali posited that his administration continues to place high value to the hard work that Government employees do every day in delivering services to the People of Guyana. To this end, he contended that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime is resolutely committed to ensuring that the lives of all Guyanese are improved steadily in a tangible and demonstrable manner as they work towards realising national prosperity for the benefit of everyone.
This, the Head of State, pointed out is evident in all the measures taken since the party assumed office in August 2022.
In fact, he reminded that in the Budget 2022 alone there were financial provisions to meet the cost of a public service salary increase for this year.
“This commitment by my government comes against the backdrop of the several other measures we have implemented since assuming office, all with the aim of improving disposable incomes to public sector employees and Guyanese at large,” he asserted.
Among these measures are the payment of a seven per cent across-the-board increase to public servants in 2021; the restoration of the one-month tax-free year-end bonuses to the Disciplined Services totalling more than $1 billion per annum; an increase of about 40 per cent in the monthly old-age pension from $20,500 to $28,000, providing a total pension payout of more than $21 billion to senior citizens; and an increase of 55 percent in public assistance payments from $9,000 to $14,000 monthly, providing a total of more than $3 billion in annual income support to the beneficiaries.
Moreover, the PPP/C has also restored the cash grants to the parents of school-aged children, increasing the amount provided for each child to $30,000 and extending the programme to children attending private schools. In total, this provides $6 billion of direct cash transfers to the parents of 200,000 school children. It also increased the minimum wage for private sector employees by 36 per cent to $60,147, in keeping with the recommendations of the tripartite committee.
According to President Ali, these and other similar measures augmented the many other steps taken by his government to remove the punitive taxes that had been imposed by A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) on electricity, water, medical and educational supplies, basic household necessities, and basic construction materials.
Further cognizant of the extraordinary shocks experienced this year in relation to the cost of living especially arising from imported factors, President Ali reminded of host of other interventions made by his administration to offset these.
“We implemented a number of measures to mitigate the effects of these imported shocks. These include removal of the excise tax on fuel, capping the freight charges, used in calculating import taxes, providing fertiliser and other support to farmers to boost food production, and direct cash transfers to especially vulnerable communities,” the Head of State noted.
Since coming into office in 2020, the PPP/C Government has implemented a number of initiatives towards improving the livelihoods of Guyanese in the face of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the real impacts of climate change. This includes the $25,000 COVID-19 cash grant per household in 2020; a $400 million special payout in 2021 to health workers on the COVID-19 frontline; and two tranches of one-off grants to old age pensioners – $25,000 in August 2021 and $28,000 in October 2022 – among others.
The Finance Ministry had said last year’s seven per cent salary increase had benefited more than 50,000 public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services, and government pensioners. That retroactive increase coupled with the substantive December 2021 salaries and pensions amounted to a whopping $10.5 billion. (G8)