Granger walks back on ‘final offer’ to public servants

President David Granger has challenged the position of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) that negotiations on public service wages and salaries are at a “deadlock,” while walking back on the finality of his administration’s offered increases.

Granger yesterday told reporters during the recording of this week’s edition of The Public Interest that the government’s offer of differentiated wage increases for public servants, ranging from 10% at the lowest scale to 1% at the highest, “is not a final offer; it is an offer which allows the government to get on with its business and allow the public servants to enjoy the increase in pay to which we feel that they are entitled.”

Last Friday, the GPSU wrote the Labour Department of the Ministry of Social Protection asking that it facilitate a conciliation between the union and government as negotiations between the two parties on wages and salaries had reached a deadlock.

In the letter, the union noted that the negotiation, which started on June 22, 2016 in relation to increases in wages, salaries and allowances, had reached an impasse on September 14, 2016, when government negotiators maintained that their offer, which runs counter to that proposed by the union, was a final position on wages and salaries.

It was announced on August 24 that the differentiated increases represented the government’s “final offer” to public servants and this position was later confirmed and maintained by leader of the government negotiation team Reginald Brotherson and Minister of Finance Winston Jordan.

Granger yesterday chose to address the GPSU’s application for conciliation, which he said was not necessary at this time.

“There is a menu of measures and I don’t feel that that menu has been exhausted. Nobody discontinued the talks. We are still talking to the union. There’s no reason for conciliation at this stage because we are still engaged, it is not as though the talks are deadlocked but we are willing to move ahead and we can’t have the public servants suffering because of the slow pace of negotiations. Looking at the pace of discussions, we were not confident that the discussion would be completed in time to allow the government to pay attention to the budget for 2017. So the GPSU is fully aware that these matters are still on the table and the discussions are continuing,” the president said.

The issues he was referring to are concerns brought to the negotiating table by GPSU, such as debunching and a review of allowances.

Both Brotherson, on behalf of the government, and Patrick Yarde, on behalf of the GPSU, had previously told Stabroek News that negotiations on nonsalary aspects continue “without prejudice” to decisions on wages and salaries.

In fact, on the same day the GPSU rejected the government’s final offer, its General Council approved the Terms of Reference for a Tripartite Allowances Committee which were submitted by the government’s negotiating team. This committee will address that aspect of the negotiation, while discussions on wages and salaries have reached an impasse as the matter “is no longer an agenda item” in the continuing negotiations.

Intervention imprudent

Meanwhile, in response to a request by the leadership of the major trade unions for an engagement “to correct anomalies” that they believe are a threat to labour’s existence, President Granger yesterday advised that they engage with the Ministry of Social Protection before seeking an audience with him.

Granger said on the Public Interest that he had received the letter sent to him by the united labour movement but urged the unions to engage with Ministers of Social Protection first, as “it would be impudent for me to overrule or override or try to deal with the unions without first giving the minister responsible [a chance to engage].”

The letter was drafted at a meeting last Thursday where representatives from the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) engaged each other on labour’s role in representing workers interests, in the workplace and wider society.

Following the meeting, the labour leaders, in a joint statement, accused the APNU+AFC government of breaching established practices in relation to four major trade unions, including the GPSU. They also highlighted that the Ministry of Education abandoned negotiations with the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and has instead imposed the same wages/salaries increases which have been given to public servants.

Separate

Circular ED: 20/14/25, dated September 13, 2016 and addressed to the Regional Executive Officers and Regional Education Officers of Regions 1 to 10 as well as the Principal Education Officer of Georgetown, specifically directed “all accounting and personnel staff… to take appropriate action” so that all persons in employment as of August 31, 2016 will be paid the appropriate percentage of the 10%-1% differentiated increase on their salary as of December 31, 2015. This increase will be paid with effect from January 1, 2016.

The circular, which was delivered to the union on September 20, 2016, prompted the union to accuse the ministry of imposing wages/salaries increases after abandoning negotiations as the negotiations between the union and the Ministry of Education had seemingly stalled after the government failed to make any commitments on wages and salary increases.

The union had been having regular meetings with the Ministry of Education (MoE) until the first week in August, after which the next three scheduled meetings did not happen.

The government instead engaged in negotiations with the GPSU and offered teachers the same increases proposed in its final offer for those negotiations.

Asked to address this decision, Granger told reporters that he was “not aware” of the GTU imposition.

However, in an interview with his staff after yesterday’s taping of The Public Interest, he maintained that the negotiations were not part of the negotiations with GPSU.

“I would have expected a separate arrangement to be made and I would say that the actual agreement between the Ministry of Education and Guyana Teachers Union should be something which should be kept separate from the GPSU negotiations,” he said.