Govt. public service salary offer retroactive to January; Ministers and MPs not to benefit

According to that statement, the government's final offer for wages and salaries increases for Public Servants had taken into consideration the current socio-economic environment; the difficulty in agreeing to increases that would entail having to raise additional revenue and the unsustainability of any further addition to its offer with regard to the current and future budgets.

Govt. public service salary offer retroactive to January; Ministers and MPs not to benefit

Government’s final salary increase offer to public servants will be retroactive to January, 2016 and Government Ministers and Members of Parliament who received increases to their salaries last year will not benefit from the increases being offered to the public servants.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan explained that position to News Source on Thursday. He said the government’s final offer to the public servants is based on several reasons.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday night, some of those reasons were explained.

According to that statement, the government’s final offer for wages and salaries increases for Public Servants had taken into consideration the current socio-economic environment; the difficulty in agreeing to increases that would entail having to raise additional revenue and the unsustainability of any further addition to its offer with regard to the current and future budgets.

The Union, according to the statement, was also reminded of the relief measures that were granted to public servants since the ascension of the New Administration to office in May 2015.

“Those measures included an increase of the Minimum wage to $50,000; a 5% across-the-board plus $5000 increase, all within the 2015 National Budget, and, a one-off bonus of $50,000 for Public Servants earning below $500,000 per month in December 2015.”

When the APNU+AFC coalition got into office in 2015, the minimum wage was set at just over $39,500. The increase of the minimum wage to $50,000 represented a 26% increase for those earning the minimum wage.

Under the government’s offer to the GPSU, public servants earning less than $99,000 per month will see a 10% increase in their salaries.

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Those earning between $100,000 and $299,000 could see a 6% increase and those who earn $300,000 to $499,000 per month, stand to gain a 5% increase in their salaries.

Additionally, a 4% salary increase is being offered to the public servants making between $500,000 and $799,000, 2% for those earning $800,000 to $999,000 and for those public servants making more than $1 Million per month, their increase could stand at just 1%.

The offer came at the end of the negotiations between the Government and the Guyana Public Service Union and the Union is yet to make a decision on whether it will accept the offer.  The GPSU is expected to first meet with its General Council before a final decision is made.

When the negotiations started, the GPSU was pushing for a 40% increase in the salaries for public servants. That was readjusted to 25% eventually as the government’s first offer of a 5.5% increase for those earning less than $100,000 a month was rejected.

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