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En GUYANA | Public Service Union Issues Gov’t Ultimatum to meet at Bargaining Table
GUYANA | Public Service Union Issues Gov’t Ultimatum to meet at Bargaining Table
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, February 22, 2024 - The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has issued the Government an ultimatum to meet at the bargaining table.
In a statement issued today the Union said its Executive Council has unanimously decided at its Meeting held on February 21, 2024, that an ultimatum be issued to the Government to meet at the bargaining table.
Failure to do so, will result in industrial action to immediately end the government’s breach of the guiding instruments of legal weight, outlined in Article 147 (3) of the Guyana Constitution, and Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act.
These are assured under the Agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes, between the Government and GPSU (1987).
The Government has refused to respect collective bargaining right of workers represented by The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
As Government refuses to respect this right for teachers, represented by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), the GPSU, and Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU), it respects said right for workers represented by its affiliated Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Association of Clerical Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE).
The denial of collective bargaining has adversely impacted the trade union’s performance in the traditional public sector, education and all state agencies because such denial workers receive their just rewards.
Guyana’s public-school teachers are in their third week of strike action, seeking government’s attention to come to the negotiation table to address a multi-year proposal submitted in August 2020, resubmitted in 2021, 2022 ad 2023.
The government has refused to meet the Union and instead has sought to verbally attack, demonise, insult the union and its membership. President Irfaan Ali cast aspersion on the teachers accusing them of not having a conscience.
Government has also threatened to deduct salary from striking teachers and said it will no longer deduct union dues from teachers’ salary on behalf of the Union.
In 2023 the government imposed a 6.5 percent increase on public servants and teachers. Guyana is the among the world’s fasted growing economy. Its 2024 expenditures per the National Budget is pegged at $1.146 Trillion. Revenue from oil and gas alone for 2024 is projected at US$2.08 Billion.
The public servants and teachers unions consistent with the constitutional right of their members want the government to come to the negotiation table to discussion increase wages/salary and improve working conditions. Under Sect 23(1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act the employer is obligated to treat with the unions in good faith. The government has not for the GPSU, GTU and GB&GWU.
The following is the full text of trhe GPSU’s statement:
Ultimatum for Government to Meet at the Bargaining Table
The Executive Council of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) unanimously decided at its Statutory Executive Council Meeting held on February 21, 2024, that an ultimatum be issued to the Government to meet at the bargaining table, the failure of which will result in industrial action to immediately end the government’s breach of the following guiding instruments of legal weight and force:
- Agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes, between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Public Service Union of (1987),
- Article 147 (3) of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and
- Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act Cap 97:07.
In addition, the GPSU places reliance on the Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) ratified by the Parliament of Guyana, including Convention No. 87 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, and Convention No. 151 on Labour Relations (Public Service) which espouses minimum standards of the conduct for Collective Bargaining and the protection of the rights of workers to be unionized and be to represented by their duly certified and recognized Union with respect to any decision on the part of their employer that affects their salaries, wages, benefits, and other conditions of service.
This decision is also guided by the protections offered to workers in Guyana pursuant to the ILO’s ‘Declaration of the Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work’ of 1998 (as amended in 2022) which is of weight and in force under the Laws of Guyana as an unincorporated ratified treaty.in
The issues affecting Workers in the Public Service, and governments’ reluctance to meet at the bargaining table, or to conciliate to break the deadlock that has arisen, were discussed extensively at the Union’s meeting on February 21, 2024, which resulted from meetings with its members throughout the country.
The Union will continue to engage its members on this matter over the coming days through a committee which was established to ensure that the GPSU is mobilised, and all grievance procedures under the existing agreement are followed as we issue, and thereafter execute the ultimatum will now be directed to the government.