The Government of Guyana and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) on Wednesday concluded discussions on Wages and Salaries for Public Servants within the Bargaining Unit for 2016.
Following a two-month negotiation between the two parties, the government has made a final offer of a 10% increase for persons earning below $99,000 per month, a 6% increase for persons earning $100,000 – $299,000 per month, 5% for those earning $300,000 – $499,000, 4% for persons earning $500,000 – $799,000, 2% for those earning $800,000 – $999,000 and a 1% increase for public servants earning above $1,000,000 per month.
The government noted in a statement late on Wednesday evening that its proposal “had taken into consideration the current socio-economic environment; the difficulty in agreeing to increases that would entail having to raise additional revenue and the unsustainability of any further addition to its offer with regard to the current and future budgets.”
It reminded the union of the relief measures that were granted to public servants including an increase of the Minimum wage to $50,000; a 5% across-the-board plus $5000 increase; all within the 2015 National Budget, and, a one-off bonus of $50,000 for Public Servants earning below $500,000 per month in December 2015.
The GPSU agreed to consider the Government’s final offer and indicated that a response will be forthcoming after a meeting of its General Council.
Negotiations between the Government and the GPSU commenced on June 22, 2016.
The initial proposal of the GPSU was for a 40% across the board increase for public servants. This was subsequently adjusted to 25%. The Union also requested that allowances be included in the negotiations.
In response, the GOG proposed a differentiated approach to increases that sought to provide the greatest relief to those within the lower Salary Bands of the Public Service Wages and Salaries Structure.
In this regard, the Government proposed the following:
- persons earning below $100,000 would receive 5.5%
- persons earning $100,000 to $300,000 would receive 5%
- persons earning $300,000 to $800,000 would receive 4.5%
- persons earning $800,000 to $1,000,000 would receive 2%
- persons earning over a $1,000,000 would receive 1%
The below $100,000.00 percentage offer of 5.5% was later increased to 6%
The GOG also agreed to consider a review of allowances for public servants immediately upon the conclusion of the negotiations for Wages and Salaries. As a consequence, a Tripartite Committee comprising representatives from the Department of the Public Service, the Ministry of Finance and the Guyana Public Service Union was established to address this issue.
However, this initial proposal was rejected by the union which led the government to make its final proposal which is outlined in the second paragraph of this story.
