Linden Town Council employees to get 15% salary increase
Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) employees will soon benefit from a 15 per cent increase in salary.
Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland made this announcement during an interview with Guyana Times on Tuesday, where he disclosed that the salary increase will be effective across the Board and will be applicable from this month.
linden mayor carwyn-holland
Several employees have expressed enthusiasm over the development, since over the years the municipality has had difficulty in paying staff, many of which are paid below the minimum wage. Holland said too that the Council will also have to re-examine the increase, come next month.
“For the first time in many years, Council is going to have a raise of salary, from this month. We’re going to re-visit this as well in December, because it’s not where it should be and we’re not fully satisfied. We want our workers to get what they duly deserve. So we’ll re-look it come December,” the Linden Mayor stated.
He also acknowledged that many workers within the municipality are underpaid, with some taking home a mere $35,000 and $38,000 per month, while others, he noted, take home just over $50,000.
“The majority of our workers are under the minimum wage… which is ridiculous. So we throw in a 15 per cent, which will take not all the workers, but a lot of the workers over the minimum wage. That’s what we can afford at the moment. Come December we’re going to try and ensure that each and every one of our workers are at the minimum wage level at least by next year,” Holland stated.
Holland explained that the increase was made possible through a collective effort. He added that the Council has also tightened up on excessive and unwarranted spending within the municipality as a means of saving and increasing its income.
“Coupled with the fact that we have the toll booth and we’re looking to deal with the bridge toll. We’ve done the amnesty (rates and taxes) and we’ve extended it to December. When we put together these factors, we were able to do a small increase,” he added.
Furthermore, the Mayor commended the Council on working to attain the increase, adding that there has not been any difficulty in paying employees’ salaries since it took up office, apart from a few days delay in payment for Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) workers.
“Every month, our core workers have had their salaries and I think it’s commendable on the part of the Council. It’s a great achievement for us,” he said.
