The first responsibility of Government is to protect its people, defend their lives, rights, dignity and welfare. The Government is doing the opposite, and is mainly focused on economic growth, infrastructure and national development. While commendable, these can never substitute for the fundamental obligation of protecting one’s people.
Yet, while trade unions around the world are fighting for expanded protections, better wages and stronger social security, the Guyanese workforce appears to be fighting for something more basic: the protection of rights that should never be in question, including the right to life, personal safety, dignity, equal pay and equal protection under the law.
The death of 32-year-old Gavin Kennard Douglas in State custody, under circumstances that have resulted in five police ranks being charged with murder, is a chilling indictment upon a democracy refusing to protect the most fundamental rights of its citizens, including pensioners.
It is for these reasons why the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) commends Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram for his fight for pension justice on behalf of retired workers across Guyana. It is disgraceful that people who dedicated their productive lives to building this country must now resort to the Courts to secure a pension that allows them to live with dignity.
The fight for pension justice for those who have toiled in building this nation, is part of a wider concern of hard-working citizens who are faced daily with increasing inequalities as highlighted in the GPSU’s letter of September 17, 2025 to the Government, calling for a 25% salary increase across the board for 2025. This demand for a living wage for the public servants of this country was ignored, and the government unilaterally imposed another poverty increase. The Government’s continued disregard for Court rulings benefiting GPSU members including employees of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), nurses and doctors, and workers in the aviation sector, among others, is equally troubling.
If the Government respects the Court Orders, and comply with the rulings, these category of workers will receive no less than an additional increase of 35% for 2026. Guyana’s extraordinary economic resources and expanding public revenues provides the capacity to honour these obligations.
The very purpose of the National Insurance Scheme, is such that as public sector wages increase, so does the contribution of contributing members. It is therefore, a legitimate expectation that pay outs should be proportionate to increases in contributions. This is not a favour to be granted to those seeking pension justice, but rather a right.
Every day these decisions remain unimplemented represents another day that thousands of hardworking public servants are denied improved earnings and are pushed deeper into poverty. Their continued sacrifice must not be mistaken for acceptance, and their silence must never be interpreted as consent, or weakness.
There was a time when the party of Cheddi Jagan stood at the forefront of the struggle for working-class rights and dignity. It is a painful irony that today, those very rights seem to require defending against the Government that ought to be their strongest protector.
Meanwhile, qualified career public servants are being marginalized by politically connected contract appointments to senior positions. Merit and experience are being sacrificed for political loyalty in every facet of the public service. The message to young professionals is unmistakable: years of qualification, dedication and public service may count for less than political connections. Is it any wonder that so many are seeking opportunities abroad, and are joining the oil and gas industry and thereafter fleeing to greener pastures, even from what is described as the world’s fastest-growing economy?
More disgraceful still is the fate of retired public servants surviving on barely US$200 monthly after decades of service (current NIS base pension). A lifetime of service must not end in a lifetime of hardship.
Labour has a twofold purpose: to sustain a worker’s family during productive years and to provide security and dignity in retirement. Labour also builds a country, and in return, the government of any country first priority is to protect and defend the rights of the people. These principles form part of the national development vision associated with Forbes Burnham. The GPSU calls upon the Supreme Court to reaffirm the founding values of our Republic and uphold the rights and dignity of our elderly citizens.
As the Union prepares for negotiations covering 2025, 2026 and 2027, any unilateral salary imposition contrary to applicable Court Orders would be a serious affront to judicial authority and could constitute contempt of court.
The GPSU will not accept a democracy where Court orders are respected by ordinary citizens but disregarded by those in power.
National wealth means very little if the people who built this nation cannot afford to live with dignity after retirement. Economic prosperity must be measured not merely by what a country earns, but by the dignity, security and justice it affords its people.
