Public servants still receiving “poverty pay” – GPSU Head

By Shemuel Fanfair

President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Patrick Yarde is once again expressing great disgust over the current salaries and benefits public servants are receiving, as he disclosed on Wednesday that the body’s executive council will soon meet for discussions on charting the way forward for improved wages.
This comes weeks after the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) inked a deal with Government for retroactive salary increases and benefits between eight and 12 per cent. In Yarde’s view, public servants are receiving “poverty payments” for salaries.
Speaking to reporters at the GPSU’s headquarters, the executive noted that he is prepared to go as high as the sky – percentage wise – a position he will emphasise when the Executive Council meets later this week. While being tightlipped on the proposed numbers, Yarde observed that the meeting will include

discussions on whether there will be changes to the GPSU’s 2015 three-year proposal given the outcome of Government’s multi-year deal with teachers.
“[It will] be determined by the constitutional body if there is evidence for us to consider higher or lower; we could go to the sky for the limit. Lots of public servants receive poverty payments; lots of their ends can’t meet with what they’re getting. There is no question with whether we will pursue the best we will get,” the GPSU head detailed.
The long-time union President also said despite the assurances given, the negotiations would usually drag out to the end of the year, a practice he expected would cease after 2015. He in fact noted that he wrote President David Granger after the GPSU could not schedule ready meetings with the Department of Public Service’s Permanent Secretary but since then, the position is now vacant, according to Yarde.
“When it became vacant, I wrote the President another letter saying that there was now nobody there to speak to for the situation to be remedied. There was a series of things that was happening and now he is ill so at our Executive Council meeting on Friday, we will determine how to proceed to deal with this matter,” Yarde outlined.
He told the press that when the Union submitted its three-year proposal in 2015, benefits for 2018 were included. He claimed that the Union is currently in a “peculiar situation” as the talks are dragging on. He expressed that union members are calling on the GPSU to conduct more workplace visits which the body will soon commence.
“I am not going to arbitrarily determine anything that is being done; this is a democratic union, it is transparent and I will weigh the outcome of those decisions,” Yarde expressed.

Final offer
In October 2017, Minister of State Joseph Harmon had announced Government’s final offer which outlined an eight per cent increase for public service employees earning between $55,000 and $99,999. He had disclosed that public servants earning between $100,000 and $299,999 would have received an increase of six per cent, while workers earning between $300,000 and $500,000 were offered a five per cent increase.
He added that those earning between $500,000 and $699,999 have been offered a four per cent increase while those earning $700,000 to $799,999 are being offered a two per cent increase. Employees earning between $800,000 and $1 million were proposed a 0.5 per cent increase while those earning above $1 million have been ‘red circled and will benefit from no increases’.
At that time, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency, Reginald Brotherson had indicated that the increases were expected to account for some $3.6 billion to the national wages bill. Speaking on these differentiated salary increases on Wednesday, the Union President reminded that Minister Harmon’s proposals were in keeping with the recommendations as outlined in the Commission of Inquiry into the public service. Yarde told reporters that this was one of the principal recommendations with which the Union was not in agreement as it remains to be seen if public service advocates will be able to clinch a similar or more lucrative deal than what was obtained by teachers.