For the third consecutive year, government has granted a 5% wage hike to traditional civil servants following the breakdown of talks with the main public sector union, the GPSU.

The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) had been pressing the government to agree to arbitration on the issue following a stalemate at the conciliation level but the state was not in favour of this.

Workers receiving the five per cent pay rise, retroactive to January 2003, include public officers employed in ministries, departments not under ministerial control, staff of the regional administrations and those who are engaged on contract against positions reflected on the inventory of authorised positions of the traditional public service. (See new bands below)

Contacted for a comment yesterday, GPSU President Patrick Yarde said that government's decision simply means that the process of collective bargaining locally is dead.

According to Yarde, the administration has again demonstrated its intention to act in contravention of international treaties including International Labour Organisation rules to which it is a signatory and has side-stepped clearly defined rules for dealing with the issue of wages.

Government in circular Number 8/2003 issued at a meeting with the GPSU at the Ministry of Labour yesterday morning, directed all permanent secretaries, heads of departments and regional executive officers to "immediately request the amounts necessary to make payments of all arrears of salary/wages by way of memorandum to the Secretary to the Treasury."

The circular further directed the officers to bring its contents to the attention of all accounting and personnel staff in their organisations to allow appropriate action to be taken.

Public servants in band one, who were receiving a minimum of $21,047 in 2002 will now get a minimum of $22,099, but will not exceed a maximum of $25,216.

Those at the top of the scale in band 14 currently receiving a minimum of $168,721 will now get a minimum of $177,157. The maximum allowable payment for persons in this bracket, which stood at $313,244, has now been raised to $328,906.

Yarde told Stabroek News that at yesterday's session, which Public Service Minister Dr Jennifer Westford attended, her ministry's permanent secretary, Dr Nanda Gopaul submitted the circular as government's position on the wages issue for 2003. At the same time, he signalled government's intention to deal bilaterally with increases for 2004 and 2005. The original discussions had focused on 2003, 2004 and 2005 as a package.

The GPSU had said at a recent press briefing that government was expected to indicate its position to requests by the union for arbitration after conciliator Chief Labour Officer (CLO) Mohamed Akeel had declared the talks deadlocked. However, yesterday's circular mirrors the action taken when the parties failed to agree on terms for arbitration at the end of 2002. Yarde told Stabroek News yesterday that the GPSU would be sensitising and mobilising its members to respond to this "outrage".

According to the GPSU head what the issue of the circular reveals is that not even the public pronouncements of President Bharrat Jagdeo could be trusted as it was he who said that pay increases would not fall below the rate of inflation. "It is the government's own figures that show that inflation is greater than the announced increase which didn't even match what he stated."

He said that the union would now have to prepare for the environment that government is operating in and institute means to protect itself.

According to the circular, workers employed in other agencies not mentioned including teachers, members of the disciplined services and workers employed on projects are to be issued separate instructions by their respective policy agencies.

Those outside the traditional public service including semi-autonomous agencies like the Guyana School of Agriculture and National Library have been directed to approach the Secretary to the Treasury in connection with increases for their workers for 2003.

The circular also directed that employees falling below the minimum of the adjusted scales should have these adjusted to the level of the new minimum.

The expenditure for the increase is to be met from allocations provided for under the approved National Estimates in the 2003 Budget, the circular said.

In January, the government had indicated its intention to have pay hike negotiations fast tracked and invited the union to work towards a timely solution to the issue. However negotiations never began until mid-year. Since then several sessions, both bilateral and through the mediation of the CLO, have failed to agree on a suitable package for wages and other emoluments.