The union representing the majority of Guyana Power and Light (GPL) employees is seeking the Ministry of Labour’s intervention into what it calls negotiations in bad faith on the part of the company.

Speaking with this newspaper recently National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) Presi-dent, Kenneth Joseph, said the company’s recent announcement of a 9% across-the-board wage increase was done even while negotiations were ongoing.

GPL said that it had set a 4.5% Annual Performance Assessment (API) increase as part of the 9% government package for its 1100 unionized workers. The company also said that NAACIE and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) were informed that it was paying the 9% increase. Payouts started last week Thursday and were to be retroactive to January 2007, a press statement from the company had said.

However, Joseph told this newspaper that the union met with GPL earlier the same day and that the company gave no indication that it would make such an announcement, as negotiations were still continuing. “At the last meeting