Low salary scales of govt workers to be adjusted

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 November 2022, 22:05 by Denis Chabrol

President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday night announced that the salary scales of government workers would be adjusted, a move that would see them earning more.

“Today I asked the Minister of Finance to complete the work on the adjustment in the lower scales because we have to work with the nurses, the constables in the police force and the low level foreign officers and so on,” he said. He gave no details, but the 2023 national budget is being prepared and so those measures might find themselves in that document.

He made the announcement in remarks at a reception hosted by United Kingdom High Commissioner to Guyana in honour of a visiting British trade delegation and Trade Commissioner for Latin America and the Caribbean at UK Department for International Trade, Jonathan Knott.

The President’s announcement comes as the prices of food and other basic consumer items continue to increase, despite a subsidy in fuels for electricity generation, water processing and distribution as well as public and private transportation.

The opposition has also been clamouring for an increase in wages and salaries on a graduated scale in which the lowest paid would be paid more and the highest paid less, instead of an across-the-board hike.

According to the opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), Guyana has earned more than US$1 billion so far from crude oil sales, and with more oil fields slated to produce oil in the coming years,  the country is expected to earn billions of dollars that could go a far way to increase salaries.

The Guyana Public Service Union has taken the Guyana government to court for allegedly breaching agreements with the union, local laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions that all govern collective bargaining.