Dear Editor,
With the big controversy surrounding the government’s announced 7% increase for public servants and other workers, I kept wondering who is advising the government on industrial relations matters in this country. This government has a proclivity for shooting itself in its feet, and that is the reason why it is stumbling from one controversy to the other.
As the opposition unions are rightly saying, it is illegal to impose wage increase on workers when there is a collective bargaining agreement between their unions and the employer, and that is why I am saying the government created this controversy. Editor, it is so simple, all they had to do was select crack negotiators to negotiate with the unions, and they could have started with a base position of say 4%, and then as the negotiations proceed they could then up their offer by 1% until the 7% is reached. And who knows, by then in the spirit of compromise, the unions might have accepted the offer with a promise from the government that next year it will do better with increased earnings from oil. By going down this route, the government would have killed two birds with one stone – respected collective bargaining and created a peaceful and harmonious industrial relations climate.
I cannot end this missive by not recommending to the government two of the best in the business of industrial relations. They are Dr. NK Gopaul and Jairam Petam. With these two men on board, I can assure the government there will be no more upheavals in labour issues in this country.
Sincerely,
Imtiaz Baccus
