Dear Editor,
Reference is made to letter captioned “Sugar workers 7%” by Elijay Bijay (Dec 22). The argument posited by the writer is not clear; all sugar workers, union and non-unionized should receive the increment. During the coalition reign from 2015 to 2020, sugar workers did not get a wage increase. The workers of other government sectors received an annual pay increment totaling some 67% during this period, according to former Finance Minister Winston Jordan. In labour union laws, at least in the US, there is a concept called “pattern bargaining” where all government workers receive similar percentage (and perks) for same duration of a contract. Some years ago, New York City educators were denied 4% annual increase by Mayor Bloomberg as was given to other municipal workers. The Mayor refused to authorize the new contract for educators because of some political fallout. When the new Mayor, Bill DeBlasio, took over, he honored the 8% raise retroactively with 3% interest accrued from that time; hundreds of Guyanese educators were beneficiaries. ‘Pattern bargaining’ labour rules are followed internationally by all democratic governments. This would suggest that the sugar workers should have received the similar percentage (67%) of increments as paid to other government workers and doled out retroactively (from 2015) with interests or whatever date their contract expired..
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
