As the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) prepares for its 23rd Biennial Delegates Congress its President Patrick Yarde has expressed the union’s disappointment with how the government has approached collective bargaining during the last four years.
“I’m extremely disappointed in the administration’s approach to collective bargaining. I’m extremely disappointed to the extent that sometimes I feel offended,” Yarde told a press conference on Monday.
Yarde repeatedly stressed that the issue will be ventilated at the Congress scheduled to begin today. President David Granger will be declaring the three-day congress open at the Baridi Benab at State House.
Days before the 2015 Election then presidential candidate Granger during the May Day rally presented his party’s manifesto as “a contract between the next government and the unions represented by the GTUC”
At the time Granger promised that should the coalition be elected, no longer will workers be forced to accept a forced “lil freck at the of the year” but instead they would see their respective unions engaging in collective bargaining for mutually-accepted agreements.
This has not materialized for the GPSU which for four years has been unable to complete any negotiation with the current administration. Instead government has routinely announced tiered increases at the end of each year.
In October 2017 the same day government announced unilateral increases, Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Department of Public Service Reginald Brotherson claimed that negotiations between government and the GPSU were being held in a “spirit of cordiality and mutual respect.” He also noted that they were started less than a month before and proceeded despite the GPSU’s position that the 2016 negotiations remain incomplete.
This was particularly surprising since the union had written the Labour Department in August 2016 requesting a conciliation process to resolve a deadlock in the negotiations which arose after the government’s negotiating team announced that its final offer to the union was differentiated wage increases for public servants ranging from 10% at the lowest scale to 1% at the highest.
The union, which had adjusted its initial demand of a 40% across-the-board raise to 25%, subsequently rejected the offer and requested conciliation but this did not occur. Instead the entire negotiation process seemed to have stalled.
Asked about the process on Monday, Yarde noted that he would address it in his speech at the opening of the congress.
Meanwhile the union appears similarly frustrated in its attempt to regain control of the GPSU Credit Union which is currently being run by an Interim Management Committee (IMC) set up in May last year by the Chief Co-operatives Development Officer (CCDO) Perlina Gifth.
At the press conference Yarde shared a series of correspondence between the union, President Granger and Minister Keith Scott. He again accused the IMC of acting in violation of the rules of the Credit Union and utilizing funds in conflict with the rules.
Specifically they have been accused of awarding millions in contracts “to their friends and affiliates” for the renovation of the GPSUCCU building and unnecessary Human Resource Training. The IMC has also come in for criticism for increasing the monthly employment cost from 3.8 million to 6.9 million.
While head of the interim body, Trevor Benn has acknowledged that the IMC has awarded contracts without public advertisement he denies that it was to “friends and affiliates”.
“They keep making allegations that have no truth it,” he told Stabroek News in an invited comment adding that the Union has taken the CCDO and the IMC to court three separate times and had their cases thrown out.
“They failed to find traction in the court of law so now they have turned to the court of public opinion,” Benn lamented.
He stressed that every decision made was duly considered by the committee and agreed to by a majority while all procurement went through the Human Resources and Administration Committee and then went to the full committee who ratified it.
According to Benn there has not been a history of advertising for services at the credit union and for a time the IMC followed that pattern but having been reprimanded by the Audit and Supervisory Committee which oversees all Credit Unions in Guyana they have begun advertising.
“We are now advertising for staff and will do it going forward before we only sought quotations,” he explained.
Asked to explain the extended tenure of the IMC which was only supposed to be in place until an Annual General Meeting could be held, Benn said they are awaiting an audit report.
He admitted that as claimed by Yarde that there have been about 400 resignations from the credit union but stressed that these were persons retiring, migrating or otherwise withdrawing from the public service.
In fact according to Benn nearly 1,500 members have joined the entity since the IMC has been in charge and about 600 loans have been granted in the last month.
The body is set to open an office in Essequibo and this weekend signed nearly 50 new members following a visit to Lethem.
