Sweeper/cleaners employed by the Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Democratic Council (RDC) on Wednesday staged a protest exercise outside the office of the regional administration calling for better salaries.
Some of the protesting workers
According to the employees, they are dissatisfied with a number of issues, including their “meagre” salary and deplorable working conditions. The female employees, who stood outside the building holding placards, made demands for their positions to be regularised to facilitate payment of at least the minimum wage.
During the protest, the workers highlighted that their current salary is $24,740 per month, adding that this sum is highly insufficient to sustain them and their families. The protesters also made demands for the provision of working gear and improved working conditions. Some revealed that they were never given work contracts to sign and are not being paid via a banking system. The employees noted that a promise of a raise of pay went unfulfilled.
“We’re protesting about our raise of salary. We don’t have any protective gear to work with. Sometimes we go to work, we ain’t get gloves; we need long boots because sometimes the place flooded and we have to walk in the water with we shoes. So, we need protective gear and we need a better salary,” an employee attached to the Harmony Secondary School noted.
“August month, you have to wipe walls and these things and you’re getting half month salary. This is the time you have children to send back to school, you have to pay passage and the 8- hour worker still getting more than us when we are doing the same amount of work… $24,000 cannot work,” yet another worker stated. Another employee, who indicated that she was a mother of three, said she has been working for years under these conditions and called on the president to intervene. According to the employees, they were promised a raise of pay in September and January, but have not received it.
Nathalie Hughes, a cleaner attached to the Christianburg Wismar Secondary School, said the school’s toilets were in a deplorable state.
“When we sick and carry in sick leave and it go through the Region, when we go NIS they saying that Region tell them don’t pay we, because they paying we full salary. When we find out from the Region they saying we’re part-time cleaners, we ain’t entitled to certain benefits,” she related, adding that ma of her colleagues, though suffering, are afraid to protest.
Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) regional representative Maurice Butters said the cleaners were frustrated with the way they were being treated by the regional administration. Butters said requests to the administration to provide proper working gear were not heeded.
“They have no respect for them. They are treating the people as if there is a class structure…where the lower you are, the more disrespectful you are treated. Even at the schools, they are treated as though they are not human beings. And no one wants to sit and discuss with these people, how we can resolve this issue affecting them,” he said.
Butters added that compounding the situation is the fact that sweeper/cleaners in Georgetown, who were in similar position, have since been regularised. He said he spoke to the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Maylene Stephen regarding the issue but has not heard back since.
“We are calling on the President to say a word on behalf of these women…this is the time when they need his support…let the instruction be given so that these people can be properly regularised,”, Butters said.
Following the protest, the workers were called to a meeting by the REO. (Utamu Belle)
