The Guyana Public Service Union [GPSU] has described government’s relief measures announced by President Irfaan Ali last Thursday as “blatant eye pass and insult” and “arbitrary, insensitive and unimpressive” in light of the astronomical increases in the cost of living.
The GPSU, in a press release issued on Thursday, condemned the measures as “arbitrary impositions which are in conflict with the President’s obligations with his oath of office to respect and uphold the Constitution and Laws of Guyana. These and any other future impositions amount to the abuse of workers’ rights to collective bargaining, which is evidence of the President’s high- handed approach, together with his continued focus on upholding bad governance as had always been his government’s hallmark, compounded with a deliberate policy of keeping workers vulnerable and at a level of poverty.”
“It would seem”, the release continued, “that the President is oblivious to the dire consequences that his methodologies, in this regard, would have for workers and peoples of this country. The continued violations impugn workers’ rights and is disastrous to their quality of life and the livelihood of their families.” In the prevailing circumstances, the GPSU said, workers should view the relief measures announced by the President as “advances on merited labour debt due and payable to them”.
The union reminded the government, that as the largest employer, it has an obligation to respect the Laws of Guyana in its entirety, specifically those that effects collective bargaining with workers’ representatives; the release further advises that such announcements as the President’s should not have been made prior to collective bargaining. The GPSU also posited that as the largest employer in the country with the responsibility of guiding the enactment of laws in the legislature, the government should be setting examples to other employers.
