By Mark DaCosta- With Christmas weeks away, Guyana’s opposition has placed the nation’s oil riches at the centre of a wage dispute. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is pressing the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to give public servants a permanent raise of at least 25 percent before the festive season, backdated to January. It argues that record petroleum receipts, a punishing cost of living and a meagre base wage make the demand both fair and affordable, and it accuses the administration of sidelining workers and their unions.
On 5 November, the People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR) General Secretary, Sherwin Benjamin writing on the coalition’s behalf, sent the Finance Minister a letter making the case. Public servants, it said, “are not asking for charity” but a share of “a national windfall that belongs to all Guyanese.” At a press conference on November 6, the party repeated the call and insisted the money be paid before Christmas.
The argument begins at the bottom of the pay scale. The basic monthly wage stands at just $102,346, and APNU contends that most households, public servants included, are “living from paycheck to paycheck.” It wants “permanent improvement in basic salaries”, with the steepest relief going to the lowest-paid.
Its affordability case leans on official figures. APNU estimates that a 25 percent rise would cost about US$302 million, measured against a 2025 wage bill of US$1.21 billion. It points out that US$4 billion in revenue was available by May, and that the Natural Resource Fund is projected to reach roughly US$6.35 billion in 2028 and US$7.93 billion in 2029. The Government’s Mid-Year Report, it adds, forecasts 2026 petroleum deposits of about US$6.5 billion, which is “136.8 percent above the original budget projection.” For the opposition, such a surplus carries an obligation: “Let us put people first.”
Prices sharpen the argument. The Bureau of Statistics recorded Georgetown inflation of 3.4 percent in September, with food at 3.8 percent, and food prices now sit some 54 percent above their December 2020 level. APNU concedes that these indices measure prices rather than changes in each worker’s purchasing power, and that experiences differ across communities. It says the hinterland, where goods cost more, carries the heaviest burden.
The demand is not new. APNU first publicly urged a 25 percent increase last December, and the Guyana Public Service Union has pressed for large rises of its own. The Government has consistently pointed to its multi-year agreements with the unions, which delivered a retroactive 10 percent increase from January 2024 and a further 8 percent last year. Minister Ally has also said the public service minimum wage has risen by 46 percent since the PPP/C took office in 2020. The Finance Minister’s 2026 budget presentation put the public-sector wage figure at $252 billion by the end of 2025. Whether those gains have kept pace with living costs is precisely what the two sides dispute.
APNU urges the Finance Minister to answer its letter, publish the cost of the increase and explain how it would be funded over the coming years. It proposes finding the money by curbing waste and corruption and tightening revenue administration, alongside measures to expand supplies and reduce distribution costs. “Responsible management would make room for decent pay,” the statement says. Better wages, it adds, would help retain experienced staff, improve the attention citizens receive and circulate money through neighbourhood businesses.
The statement then turns sharply political. It accuses the Government of marginalising the trade union movement while enriching “family, friends, and favourites”, and brands the administration “anti-working-class.” It also urges the authorities to begin deducting dues from teachers and remitting them to the Guyana Teachers Union, as the law requires, describing this as a chance to show that the State respects the rule of law it demands of citizens. The party closes with a call to “End the authoritarianism” and to respect independent institutions, transparency and accountability.
APNU’s costings and its characterisation of the Government’s conduct are partisan claims that ministers can be expected to contest. Yet they raise a question that will persist as oil revenue grows: how widely will our nation’s new wealth be shared, and how soon will ordinary workers feel it?
