GPSU sees salary increase agreement as not ideal, but a start in moving forward

First Vice President of the Guyana Public Service Union, Dawn Gardener, believes public servants will be happy with the two-year agreement that the union has reached with the Government, although she has admitted that while the agreement is not ideal, it is a start in the right direction.

“It is an agreement that as a union we strongly support, and we know that public servants will be happy with. There is more than an across the board increase for public sector workers and that’s the reason that public servants will be happy with it. It’s not ideal agreement but it is a start in moving forward in a positive direction and in a direction of good faith between the union and the employer”, Gardener told News Source in an interview this afternoon.

The agreement covers a 10% retroactive salary increase for this year for public servants along with an 8% salary increase for 2025. It also includes duty free allowances for staff nurses and those above that level, as well as salary adjustments for various categories of public servants along with scholarships.

The GPSU First Vice President said discussions and negotiations with the Government were ongoing for months, but away from the public’s limelight. She said both sides were very professional with the negotiations.

“We had extensive discussions, late nights and long days. We had extensive discussions”, she said.

Questioned whether the agreement reached back in August between the Guyana Teachers Union and the Government tied the hands of the GPSU, Gardener said “no”.

“GTU’s agreement had nothing to do with our negotiations. Absolutely nothing to do with our negotiations. As matter of fact, we didn’t even look at it because we did not want it to mirror our agreement or our negotiations. We didn’t want to also didn’t want it to take precedence from GTU’s agreement so it had nothing to do our negotiations. Our negotiations were based principally on the principles of industrial relations and that is collective bargaining, where both sides submit, both sides agree and disagree and then we compromise or an agreement”, the GPSU First Vice President said.

Reminded of the union dismissing the Government’s 8% salary increase two years ago as an insult, the GPSU First Vice President said that increase was not the product of negotiations, but was rather an imposition, which was completely unacceptable.

“It’s a big difference. An imposition is where you impose and just throw it and give it to public sector workers, this time around, you had negotiations and the union was satisfied because of its position to afford this and at that time, we had no negotiations”, she said.

The GPSU Senior Official reminded that the agreement also allows for adjustments to the salaries of a number of scales in the public service, which will see some workers benefiting from increases above the 10%. Additionally, she said many public servants will be able to pursue higher education through the scholarships in various fields that will be offered. Gardener said the agreement is just for two years, and the union will continue to press on for better conditions and salaries for its members.