Thursday, June 1, 2023
Village Voice News
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • Future Notes
    • Blackout
    • From The Desk of Roysdale Forde SC
    • Diplomatic Speak
    • Mark’s Take
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • The Herbal Section
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Book Review 
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • Future Notes
    • Blackout
    • From The Desk of Roysdale Forde SC
    • Diplomatic Speak
    • Mark’s Take
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • The Herbal Section
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Book Review 
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Village Voice News
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Public Service Union Demands Respect for Collective Bargaining, Carries Gov’t To Court

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
August 3, 2022
in News
President of GPSU, Patrick Yarde

President of GPSU, Patrick Yarde

0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

READ ALSO

US Embassy Issues Demonstration Alert for Soesdyke, Linden Area, Guyana

Minister Manickhand accuses Teachers Union of being disingenuous, McDonald fires back

Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice.

 

The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) is reminding the Government of Guyana, employer of public servant workers, that Article 38G of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana guarantees the public service be free from political influence.

Article 38G states:

 

Advertisement

“(1) The integrity of the public service is guaranteed. No public officer shall be required to execute or condone irregular acts on the basis of higher orders.

 

(2) The freedom of every public officer to perform his or her duties and fulfil his or her responsibilities is protected.

 

(3) No public officer shall be the subject of sanctions of any kind without due process.

 

(4) In the discharge of his or her duties a public officer shall execute the lawful policies of the government.”

The Union, in expressing concern for the government’s disregard for constitutional protection, is also flaying the Ali administration for political interference in an effort to destabilise the public service, but warned public servants will not be deterred in the professional discharge of their duties of their various offices.

GPSU is demanding a living wage for its members and notes the reluctance of the government to uplift public servants to the level of a living wage. This situation is now, coupled with escalating cost of living, resulting in financial hardships being heaped upon public servants and the nation by extension, the Union contends.

According to the Union “it is now an inescapable fact the PPP/C Government is very reluctant to better the lot of public servants, as with a national budget of GY$552.9B, backed by a drawdown of US$200M or GY$41.7B, has not motivated it to engage the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) in the necessary process of collective bargaining towards an agreement for a living wage for public servants.”

The Irfaan Ali government has been in office for two years. Article 147 of the Constitution of Guyana protects the Right to Collective Bargaining, and Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Act mandates the employer to negotiate in good faith with the trade union.

Since the Union’s statement President Ali has promised to meet with the leadership. But meeting with the Union is no guarantee the government will respect Collective Bargaining for public servants.  General Secretary, Guyana Trades Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis in an invited comment said there is no guarantee a meeting with the President will see departure from past conduct, i.e., talking with the Union one or three times per year and in December imposing wage and salary increase.

“Collective Bargaining speaks to an array of issues which include wages and salary, allowances, and other working conditions and it is important the government sits with the Union and works through the proposal submitted by the Union,” the General Secretary contended.

The PPP/C government has a history of non-engagement in collective bargaining with unions they consider independent of the party. Unions considered aligned or friendly, like the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) experience no such disregard for the right to collective bargaining. The Guyana Teachers Union faces similar fate like the GPSU. The Ali government is yet to engage teachers in collective bargaining.

Since “its ascension to office in the year 2020 [the government] did nothing to alleviate the pains and sufferings of its workforce, other than to offer a miniscule cash grant of $25,000 in the year 2020 and a year later a paltry award of a taxable seven percent (7%) across-the-board increase, which taken as a whole could not absorb the impact of COVID-19 price increases,” the GPSU charged.

Castigating the Government’s ‘one Guyana’ slogan the Union said the narrative has a suspicious connotation of the “One China” claim that is currently being used to deny Taiwan the recognition as an independent country, and the President’s utterances are merely smokescreens, obviously not channelled to good governance, but craftily created to deceive.

The GPSU has since taken the Government to court to enforce the constitutional right to collective bargaining for workers in a unionised environment.

ReplyForward



Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice



ShareTweetSendShareSend

Related Posts

News

US Embassy Issues Demonstration Alert for Soesdyke, Linden Area, Guyana

by Staff Writer
June 1, 2023

Georgetown, Guyana (June 1, 2023) - The US Embassy in Georgetown has issued an alert to all US citizens in...

Read more
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand and Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) General Secretary, Coretta McDonald
News

Minister Manickhand accuses Teachers Union of being disingenuous, McDonald fires back

by Admin
June 1, 2023

The Ministry of Education, in a statement, has accused the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) of “opportunistically and disingenuously” staging protest...

Read more
News

Forde addresses overseas Christian community about government discrimination

by Admin
June 1, 2023

Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde last Sunday told a New York congregation, in Guyana, a land of plenty, vast rich mineral...

Read more
Next Post
Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde, SC

MP Forde flays Ali’s 2 years in office, hallmarked by contempt for constitutional values

EDITOR'S PICK

Another oil find-but what’s in it for the people?

April 28, 2021

Russian missile barrage slams into cities across Ukraine

March 9, 2023

Will there be an independent investigation on contracting pumps?

March 13, 2022

“Criminal prosecutions has a rigorous standard: proof beyond a reasonable doubt”

June 26, 2022

© 2022 Village Voice | Developed by Ink Creative Agency

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • Future Notes
    • Blackout
    • From The Desk of Roysdale Forde SC
    • Diplomatic Speak
    • Mark’s Take
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • The Herbal Section
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Book Review 
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us

© 2022 Village Voice | Developed by Ink Creative Agency