The social contract/compact initiative between the government, labour and employers was scuttled on Thursday when the Trades Union Congress (TUC) snubbed the agreement because the government linked the body's annual $5M subvention and land for a housing project to a unified labour movement.
TUC's general secretary, Lincoln Lewis, on Friday said the current environment was not conducive for a social contract because it had to be rooted in an atmosphere of "trust, fair play and goodwill" and these were missing from the union's relationship with the government.
"The Council position is that the government cannot want us to sign a contract that commits workers of a country to a certain regime and then they say at the same time we are not legitimate enough on behalf of workers," Lewis told Stabroek News.
Labour Minister, Dale Bisnauth was out of town and could not be contacted for comment; efforts to reach David Yankana, head of the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry (CAGI) were also unsuccessful.
The TUC council last Wednesday endorsed an earlier position that the atmosphere was not conducive after liaison officer and TUC President, Carvil Duncan, reported that the government said it would not release the subvention or the land until the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) were back in the TUC's fold.
Lewis said that in 1988, when seven unions walked away from the TUC, no condition had been attached to the subvention in the succeeding years.
"The Council is of the view that the issue of the grant was never linked to the question of unity in the labour movement...this notion of unity is politically engineered," says Lewis.
A memorandum of understanding on the social contract/compact was to be signed on Thursday and Lewis says the TUC is irrevocably committed to the philosophy of such a compact.
But in a letter to Bisnauth, prior to the scheduled signing, Lewis, reiterating the TUC's commitment noted the need for a relationship rooted in trust, fair play and goodwill.
However, he told Bisnauth that the memorandum coincided with an "unstable and inhospitable" industrial relations climate which mitigated against the realisation of the objectives set out in the document.
"It is obvious, for example, that the protracted refusal by the Government of Guyana to release to the Guyana Trades Union Congress the $5M subvention listed in the 2003 estimates and approved by the National Assembly bespeaks a condition of ill-will that hardly augurs well for a successful relationship," Lewis said.
He cited the land issue and added that recently the government had been "dismissive and condescending" in its treatment of the GTUC.
He informed the minister that the signing of the memo should be preceded by confidence building measures designed to create an enabling environment in which the work of the social partners could proceed smoothly.
Lewis turned up at the scheduled signing on Thursday and said the minister's response to the letter was that the issues would need to be addressed. CAGI pronounced that it was a matter for the government and the TUC to resolve. Lewis finds the latter upsetting, insisting that binding agreements between the government and the TUC transcend all social partners and should be a matter of interest to CAGI if there is to be an effective social contract.