The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has committed to start paying over 100 of its workers who are owed retroactive salaries in October. This was on Friday related to Guyana Times by City Hall’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Debra Lewis.
She said the decision was agreed to by General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), Carvil Duncan, during a recent meeting.
Lewis explained that the workers will receive their payments based on a salary scale. “The money will be paid incrementally and that will be done according to salary scales, where the persons at the bottom of the scale will be paid first starting from the month of October,” she shared.
The decision between the two parties comes on the heels of protest action, where
Some of the workers protesting on Monday in front of City Hall
a number of workers from various departments at City Hall on Monday took to the streets in protest to express their frustration over the non-payment of their retroactive salary, along with the non-payment of their National Insurance Scheme (NIS), and other issues.
Town Clerk Royston King said on Monday City Hall is now working on a payment plan to pay outstanding amounts to owed to workers.
The workers have contended that they are owed money from the year 2016 and the entire of 2017.
Regarding the non-payment of the NIS, the Town Clerk related that “other concerns raised by the union are being adequately addressed by the Mayor and City Council”.
King on Tuesday told the GLU that the Georgetown municipality is unable to pay its workers in lump sum the money owed to them for retroactive payments on wages and salaries and increases given to the workers.
“We’re protesting here because of an injustice that [has] been going on here for the longest while. I wuking here 10 years now, and you ain’t getting nothing tangible. Everything is just promises, promises, and nothing ain’t coming out of it…” a protester decried.
Over the years, City Hall has been attracting attention for its inability to pay its workers. The Mayor has been recorded in the media as deeming the Municipality “bankrupt”; and in the past, Central Government has had to intervene with financing to provide a bailout. However, City Hall came in for much criticism after it budgeted $19 million for its 175th anniversary celebrations when workers’ NIS, Union dues and PAYEE have remained unpaid.
