Pay increases must reflect inflation rate – trades union

Trades union leaders are calling again for pay hikes to be brought into line with the rate of inflation for 2007, which has been pegged at 14 per cent.

President of the Guyana Public Service Union Patrick Yarde called the 2007 wage increase of nine per cent to public servants “ruthless and uncaring” in the context of the 14 per cent inflation rate.

Speaking to this newspaper, Yarde said that with the windfall from the VAT, the government should have no excuse for not paying increased wages and salaries in line with inflation.

He believes also that if voted provisions for wages and salaries increases had been evenly distributed, the government could have easily afforded to pay workers properly. He said the GPSU will be vigorously pursuing better wages for workers.

Consumer advocate Eileen Cox told this newspaper that it wasn’t just the low-income workers who were finding it difficult to cope with the high inflation, but those in the middle-income bracket also.

General Secretary of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) Grantley Culbard said the situation would have been somewhat neutralised if the increases had been in line with the inflation rate. He said that with inflation outstripping salary and wage increases, people will not be moving forward.

He pointed out that the economy needs to grow in real terms for people to get the kinds of wages that will sustain them.

On the issue of the nine per cent wage increase for public servants as against inflation rate for 2007, Norris Witter of the Guyana Trade Union Congress, said that this will lead to the further pauperisation of the workers. He said the Bureau of Statistics figures for the period January to June showed inflation at 13.3 per cent. “The minister in his budget speech reported that inflation was 14 per cent. Is the minister saying that from July to December the inflation rate went up by only .7 per cent?” he asked. He added that during this period the prices of essential commodities continued to rise.

He said it was an accepted fact that if inflation outstripped wage increases, this will lead to a loss in the standard of living and quality of life for the workers. Witter said that the situation does not bode well for the health and education of workers’ children who will lack the basic nutrients for their well-being and for them to learn at school. He said too that all sorts of social ills could erupt as a result of the situation.

Adding his union’s voice to the inflation debate, General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Komal Chand said when GAWU was bargaining with the sugar company for increases in wages, “We were drawing their attention to the inflation rate of 13 per cent. We told Guysuco to protect the purchasing power of the workers.”

He added: “But we didn’t get that, we only got 8.5 per cent.” Chand noted that there hasn’t been double digit inflation rate since 1992.

Yarde believes that the methods of determining the inflation rate and the consumer price index (CPI) are flawed and as such, a true picture isn’t being presented. He said the inflation of 14 per cent of last year is most likely understated.

“This is why we have so many problems in the society. Poverty breeds these things,” he said. Yarde added that because of poverty people are becoming irrational and doing things that they would not have even considered before.