The implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) has been a greater burden on the poorer class of people because some business people have increased the prices of their goods two fold, the Clerical and Commercial Workers’ Union (CCWU) said.
The union is calling on the government to review the workings of VAT in the new year with the view of lowering its percentage level of the tax since it is understood that the tax surpassed all expectations last year.
Its New Year’s message called on the government to take the necessary steps to avoid any member of the business community from “further exploiting the operation of VAT,” while noting that although a number of basic food items are zero rated the prices continue to go up.
Meanwhile, the union said last year it had witnessed some instances where employers did not respond to requests for meeting to discuss and resolve disputes and among those guilty is the state run National Communica-tions Network (NCN). The union stated that two letters were sent to that company, one to the Human resource Manager and the other to the Chief Executive Officer with no positive response to any of the letters. The letters were sent in relation to the recent dismissal of the company’s employee, Andrea Bryan and the union said in 2008 it would be working to ensure that requested meetings are held. “We would not accept that any employer with whom the CCWU deals could wake up any morning and terminate one of our members, then say that they acted in accordance with the law and that it would serve no useful purpose to meet the union to discuss the issue,” the union said. It pointed out that should such behaviour go unchallenged then “we would be entering into a dangerous trend in industrial relations in this country.”
Also the union feels that collective bargaining appears to be under threat as while unions were doing their level best to secure adequate pay increases the government moved ahead and imposed a 9% increase in wages in the public sector last year, which has become the trend over the past years. It said that the private sector then moved to offer a similar increase and all of this was done against a backdrop of an inflation rate in excesses of 13.1% as of July last year. “It does not take an expert to tell us that the workers’ real wages have further declined. If we continue to receive inadequate pay compared to the level of prices for goods and services then we are surely heading toward a pauperized workface,” the union warned.
And the union expressed disappointment at the fact that the trade union movement remains divided while stating that it is selfishness on the part of some leaders in the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is one of the main reasons why the division persists. It pointed out that the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), the other umbrella trade union organisation, made overtures to the GTUC in an effort to bridge the divide but the principal leaders of the GTUC continued to play games and to dodge the issue. The union said it is one of the two unions associated with both organisations and has tried its best to help mend the breach. “As long as this division continues, the workers in both groupings will be unable to fully realise their just demands.” However, it stated that the “degree of selfishness was of such that we saw some persons prepared to destroy organisation if they can’t have their own way. So it was not a question of caring for the organisation and its members but obsession with looking after self.”
