Officers attached to the Stabroek Market Administrative Office have taken industrial action over the deplorable condition of the revenue office, which is located in the market, and the late payment of salaries.
The strike action has resulted in there being no security or cleaning personnel at the facility.
When this newspaper visited the Stabroek Market yesterday after the usual closing time, 4 pm, several gates remained open while some had been secured already. Vendors indicated that a few members of the City Constabulary continued the duty of locking up.
“We don’t know who open the market. Whoever open the market have to take responsibility for security of the office and the market so that is a concern,” President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU), Dale Beresford, told Stabroek News yesterday. “With no administration, they can operate still. The only problem is they’ll have no one to clean and lock up.”
He explained that several members of his union, attached to the markets and several other sections, proceeded on strike mainly because of late payments and non-communication from Town Clerk, Carol Sooba.
“There has been no word from the Town Clerk on issues regarding the markets and their administration. We still haven’t been able to meet the Town Clerk to ventilate and come to amicable solutions.”
Sooba had told Stabroek News last Friday that the final day for salaries to be paid out was to be August 26, but with the slow tax collection income, everyone could not be paid in a timely fashion. However, she had stated that all workers were paid by the end of Friday.
Beresford yesterday refuted this statement, calling on workers who had gathered at City Hall to support this.
“All the workers were not paid. Most of the staff… attached to the daycare and other sections… they received their cheques today [Monday] and even some of those who were paid on Friday were paid too late to have the cheques changed,” one woman said.
“So for her to say that everybody was paid on Friday, that wasn’t true,” Beresford added.
At the Stabroek Market, vendors said they turned up at the usual 7 am only to find the gates were locked. “I come and see a crowd there and they say the market strike,” one woman said, adding that most vendors remained and the gates were eventually opened around 8.15 am.
“We were not even informed that we’ll be locked out. That’s how nice these people are. They didn’t cater for people with goods that can’t keep,” a food vendor said, noting that she was forced to sell her items from the back of a car before she was allowed access to her stall.
Officer’s deposit
Meanwhile, the Revenue Office door was unlocked and Stabroek News managed to catch up with the last worker before she too left.
She explained that apart from the late payment and condition of the office, there was an issue with the “officer’s deposit system” that she hoped would be rectified.
“They taking out this officer’s deposit out of our salary and it was supposed to function like a credit union so we can get money to borrow. Four per cent of our salary [is deducted] every month and we can’t see the benefit. It [was] supposed to be only a certain level of worker but now is everybody they taking from,” the woman explained.
She further stated that the revenue office is not secure and this is a major concern for the workers there. “We collect money so we are at risk,” she said, adding that there is not even proper furniture in the office.
“Not even water these people provide or a pen. No stationery… we does got to take money out of our salaries for these things and then sometimes you working overtime so it’s more expense for you because they don’t pay overtime yet we find ourselves doing the overtime just because we have to get stuff done,” she explained.
Asked what she hoped to achieve by striking, the worker said better working conditions through basic office improvements and for the officer’s deposit to be stopped.
Vendors at the Bourda Market were also locked out for a short time during the morning period. Several persons said they supported the strike action but were worried about what effect it might have on their operations. “The council needs to pay these people, they does work hard and need their money,” one man said.
A statutory meeting was expected to be continued yesterday at City Hall where councillors would have engaged in discussions focus-ed on the markets. However, although councillors and the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, gathered, members of the administrative team, including Sooba, failed to make an appearance.
“There are no administration arrangements in place. I will suggest that we call a special meeting during the week. That is our right, to convene a meeting as a body without the administration,” Green told councillors.
Local Government Minister, Ganga Persaud, told members of the media yesterday that he was informed yesterday morning that the Georgetown Municipality had taken steps to close the Stabroek and Bourda markets as a result of strike action by workers attached to the M&CC.
He said he was told that the strike was as a result of a delay in payments to the workers. However, he said, he was informed that the workers were paid.
Persaud said efforts were being made by Sooba to engage the workers on the payroll of the M&CC. He lamented too that the citizenry are usually the persons at the receiving end of strike action by city workers.
He noted however, that he must commend the team from City Hall for being proactive as regards remedying the garbage situation in the city.
Meanwhile, Persaud was asked yesterday to comment on claims by the union representing municipality workers that Sooba was not qualified to occupy the post of Town Clerk.
He responded that the union is in no position to pronounce on who should occupy the post of Town Clerk. He said he would be “happy “if the union could provide a benchmark as regards the qualifications for the post of Town Clerk.
