At ILO Conference President Ali calls for social justice prioritisation but ignores it at home

President Irfaan Ali has made the call for global prioritisation in promotion of social justice at a three-day International Labour Organisation (ILO) meeting being held in Guyana. The meeting is being hosted by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO), Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, under the theme ‘Social justice – the foundation for sustainable Caribbean transformation’.

Speaking Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the Twelfth Sub-Regional ILO Meeting of Caribbean Labour Ministers, held at the Marriott Hotel, Ali addressed the need for social justice to permeate every fibre of the global tapestry.

“For social justice to exist, there must be some guiding principles that will allow us at the global level to understand that global social justice is not a theory, but a set of principles and values that we are all going to bound ourselves by,” he said.

Touching on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic Ali said this crisis saw an erasure of social justice. “It became a selfish enclave of protectionism. We must not forget that those who could not have afforded the vaccines are still waiting for them, and those who could were told that they were not a priority in the line. We understand that every nation must protect its citizens. But, if social justice is a global concept, then there should be global responsibilities.”

Social justice cannot be an event, or it cannot be targeted, and that is what we have allowed it to be, a set of measurable targets that we aim to achieve. Social justice must be a culture through which societies, nations and policies are built,” the head of state said.

But even as Ali acknowledges and speaks to these failings at the international level his administration does not engage in practice, policies and programmes that are inclusive and address social justice deficiencies at home.

Social justice issues include gender pay gap, income inequality, climate change, food insecurity, universal health care, poverty, gender-based violence, among others.

However, Ali identified and spoke only to energy, food and climate security, highlighting that these issues heavily impact the Caribbean nations.

The president in his limited outpouring on the issue said against the backdrop of the areas he identified it is crucial to build out systems that allow for people to be at the centre of the policies, and in so doing, recognise those regions that are particularly vulnerable to these challenges.

Since the Ali administration has been in government (August 2020- to present) it has created and maintained adversarial relationships with the political opposition, independent trade union, civil society, independent media, and persons who expressed disagreement with his management of the state.

He however sought to impress attendees at the conference  of the need to “allow us to have that conversation, or would we ensure that the system allows that conversation? We may be too small individually, but collectively, we have enough to question the system.”

Further, Ali noted that in promoting social justice, the Caribbean region should seek to develop a framework that highlights the value of work, and one that promotes continuous upskilling and education to match the global technological transformation that is currently underway.

He explained, “Social justice for workers is accessibility to financing to ensure that the future generations of workers have access to education, healthcare and equal opportunities. It is not about creating the framework for existing workers alone. It is about how, globally, we are taking collective responsibility for the workforce now and in the future.”

Unionised public servants, including teachers, are still awaiting the Ali government showing respect for the constitutional right to collective bargaining and negotiating a new wage/salaries and working condition agreement. The three-year government has refused to do so for workers represented by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) among other unions representing workers the government has a hostile relationship with.

Ali also told the conference the strengthening of democratic institutions and the crafting of innovative technological platforms to train and upskill persons are important to building out a sustainable labour framework. This does not happen in Guyana. Constitutional provisions such as Article 13 that mandates “inclusionary democracy” continue to be violated by the Ali government. The Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the United Nations are not being implemented in Guyana.