The Guyana Public Service Union has once again raised its voice in criticism of the Government and its recent imposition of a 6.5% salary increase for public servants.

In a statement, the union said the increase cannot supplement the low salaries in the public service.

The Union said the continued disregard for public servants, at a time when the country can afford to give a livable income to all public servants, is the primary reasons many professionals are leaving the country.

“Migration impacts the very professional core of Guyana and has adversely increased with the coming of the PPP to Government, even though their propagandists would have us believe that this slowed since the Burnham era. It is well known that more Guyanese live outside our borders than within. At this rate Guyana will not have the means and will to defend its rich patrimony and may need to capitulate to the special interest of foreign countries to do so. The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana must, at all times, respect the legal rights of workers especially at a time it is calling for national unity against existential threats,” the Public Service Union stated.

The union accused the government of putting foreign investors before its own workers, stating that investors enjoy huge concessions totaling billions of dollars which would have been used to pay public servants.

“Mismanagement of resources and loss of revenues through lopsided deals with multinationals, excessive borrowing, along with the low priority given to the plight of the working class and pensioners are partially the reasons a paltry G$4,875 (equivalent to US$22.67) per month that was imposed on the monthly salary of persons earning the minimum wage in this currently touted “fastest growing economy in the world.” GPSU stated.

The Union wants the government to return to collective bargaining, but said the government must first stop treating unions as if some are for government and others are for opposition, and negotiate on behalf of the people. 

“Even as Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo confessed unashamedly to knowingly breaking the Laws requiring Collective Bargaining as a basis of determining increases in wages and salaries, he spurned the peoples’ Constitutional rights to Freedom of Association when he spoke of opposition aligned Trade Unions as opposed to Government aligned Trade Unions, which he favours. Minister Sonia Parag on the other hand rightly pointed out that Government has “an obligation to take care of the welfare of the people”, but decidedly strayed away from the legal framework within which Government must consistently operate to fulfill those obligations,” the Union said. 

The GPSU has been trying to meet with the President since he took office in 2020. There has been no meeting so far.

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