Case closed on 2002, says govt
Chief Labour Officer disagrees
By Oscar P. Clarke
Stabroek News
December 12, 2002
The government says the 2002 wages issue is closed after the decision was made to award public servants a 5% increase.
This decision followed deadlocked negotiations on an acceptable formula for arbitration. Permanent Secretary, Public Service Ministry (PSM), Dr Nanda Gopaul told Stabroek News yesterday the increase would be the final payout for 2002. He insisted that this was not a unilateral payout, and that all procedures had been exhausted.
But Chief Labour Officer (CLO), Mohamed Akeel says the payment could not be interpreted as the end of the matter.
And Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) President, Patrick Yarde, is insisting that the matter cannot be closed since the government is still to submit itself to arbitration as agreed.
He said the parties have an existing binding agreement to proceed to arbitration and as such the issue has not reached closure. According to Yarde, the union had dispatched a letter to Akeel, requesting him to compel the administration to submit to the process following the breakdown of talks and the five percent payout.
A press release from the GPSU yesterday said that via a letter dated December 9, Akeel had been advised to execute the ministry’s mandate under the law by directing the Public Service Ministry to submit itself to the process of arbitration.
According to the release, the ministry is required to submit to the process according to stage IV of the agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes between the Ministry and the GPSU as set out in Appendix Q1 of the Public Service Rules which is legally binding as indicated by 28A(i) of the Labour Act as altered by Part VIIA of the Labour Amendment Act No.9 of 1984.
Yarde said it was the Ministry of Labour’s duty to ensure that the law was now enforced.
But Gopaul is confident that the administration has made its decisions consistent with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) position on the issue of collective agreements.
Gopaul said negotiations do at times end up being inconclusive and there was nothing in industrial relations practices that prohibit government from taking a decision.
According to Akeel, if the sides [GPSU and PSM] are prepared to meet and agree on the terms of reference for the arbitration panel then the process could proceed.
Government had said it was only prepared to go to arbitration on wages for 2002, if wages for 2003 and 2004, excluding allowances were part of the arbitration process.
The union did not object in principle to the idea of a multi-year package, but was adamant that allowances had to be included in the deliberations.
