The GPSU parties should agree to read from the same page

Dear Editor,

Here was the Vice-President of the Guyana Public Service Union on TV belabouring the fact that government was not disposed to negotiate with that union salary increases (and outdated allowances) retroactive to 2016.

His articulate exposition was made in the equally eloquent silence of the President of the union, sitting alongside him.

One wondered how many viewers (including the legally informed decision-makers) recognised the schizophrenic status of the main employment officer of the government, no less than the Chairman (ag) of the Guyana Public Service Com-mission, in plain view, unrepentant about explicitly identifying himself as the GPSU’s active vocalist.

It is not as if the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service had not roundly condemned this irrationality, to say the least.

One could only conclude that neither the sponsors of the inquiry nor those who argued the case on behalf of the welfare of their union members had yet read the relevant sections of the report.

With fresh negotiations being threatened, it may not be a bad time for the parties to agree on reading from the same page.

Yours faithfully,

E B John