Public servants on alert for industrial action if no pay talks

Last Updated on Thursday, 22 February 2024, 19:38 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Public. Service Union (GPSU) on Thursday said it would give government a deadline to negotiate increased wages and salaries  or industrial action  would called.

The GPSU indicated that it first has to exhaust the grievance procedure, but gave no timeline when that would start.

“The Union will continue to engage its members on this matter over the coming days through a committee which was established to ensure that the GPSU is mobilized, and all grievance procedures under the existing agreement is followed as we issue, and thereafter execute the ultimatum will now be directed to the government,” the GPSU said

That union already has an ongoing court case against the Guyana government for failing to engage in collective bargaining.

The GPSU’s decision to engage in industrial actin comes as the turnout by striking teachers under the banner of the Guyana Teachers’ Union is dwindling.

The GPSU said its Executive Council  unanimously decided at its Statutory Executive Council Meeting held on February 21, 2024, that an ultimatum be issued to the government to meet at the bargaining table. “The issues affecting Workers in the Public Service, and governments’ reluctance to meet at the bargaining table, or to conciliate to break the deadlock that has arisen, were discussed extensively at the Union’s meeting on February 21, 2024, which resulted from meetings with its members throughout the country,” the union added.

The union warned that if the government does not go to the bargaining table, that “will result in industrial action to immediately end the government’s breach” of a number of guiding instruments of legal weight and force.

Those are the Agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes, between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Public Service Union of (1987); Article 147 (3) of Guyana’s Constitution, and= Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act Cap 97:07.

In addition, the GPSU said it places reliance on the Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) ratified by the Parliament of Guyana, including Convention No. 87 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, and Convention No. 151 on Labour Relations (Public Service).

The union said those espouse minimum standards of the conduct for Collective Bargaining and the protection of the rights of workers to be unionized and be to represented by their duly certified and recognized Union with respect to any decision on the part of their employer that affects their salaries, wages, benefits, and other conditions of service.

According to the GPSU, this decision is also guided by the protections offered to workers in Guyana pursuant to the ILO’s ‘Declaration of the Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work’ of 1998 (as amended in 2022) which is of weight and in force under the Laws of Guyana as an unincorporated ratified treaty.