GPSU expects pay hike award to be honoured -questions probe of tribunal by Akeel By Patrick Denny Stabroek News September 24, 1999 The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) expects the government to honour the award by the Armstrong tribunal on public service pay and to do so within the 45 days stipulated. However, the union is concerned at what it has described as attempts to smear the integrity of the chairman of the tribunal on public service pay and the nominee of the unions representing public servants. The tribunal awarded a 31% increase for 1999 and 26% for 2000. These and other concerns were aired at a press conference the union hosted yesterday at its New Garden Street, Bourda headquarters. Present were its president, Patrick Yarde; secretary, Joseph Brandt; consultant, Leslie Melville; and project officer, Randolph Kirton. In a prepared statement, Brandt explained that the union had remained silent, hoping that with the pronouncement by President Bharrat Jagdeo that his government would honour the tribunal's award, the brickbats being levelled against the chairman of the tribunal, Dr Aubrey Armstrong, and the unions' nominee, Professor Clive Thomas would have ceased. However, he said, the union noted that Chief Labour Officer, Mohamed Akeel, had conducted an investigation into alleged irregularities, as claimed by Dr Gobind Ganga, in the tribunal's procedures. "The GPSU is unclear of the authority under which the Minister of Labour appointed Mr Akeel, and the terms of reference under which the Chief Labour Officer was expected to function." The union, he said, had been advised by its legal advisers that "there was no legal authority under which the Chief Labour Officer could have conducted his so-called investigations." Brandt also noted that Akeel's report, which had been considered by Cabinet had no input from Armstrong and Thomas as "to the best of the GPSU's knowledge, Mr Akeel did not consult Chairman Armstrong nor Prof Clive Thomas in his 'investigation'. "The union is convinced, however, that neither Dr Armstrong nor Prof Thomas would have entertained Mr Akeel in his so-called investigation, unless his credentials and bona fides were first established." Brandt said that the union saw the appointment of Akeel as "but another attempt by the administration to use public servants in furthering its devious political ends." Commenting on the alleged irregularities which Akeel investigated, Kirton charged that Ganga's "irresponsibility" in walking out of the tribunal's proceedings because he could not get his way; his being considered for appointment as finance minister; his membership of the tribunal on teachers pay as the government's nominee were irregularities which should have been investigated. Also, he said that the statement that some 4,000 - 4,500 public servants would have to be dropped from the public service which appeared in the government's position in a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Public Service Ministry, Rovind Sivanand, was another irregularity that should have been investigated. Yarde said he noted that President Jagdeo during his present trip to the United States would be meeting international financial institutions to discuss the award. But he cautioned that the desires of the international financial institutions should not take precedence over the laws of Guyana. Yarde also contended that the fuss over the award which was prompted by Ganga should not be surprising. He said that Ganga as a member of the Committee on Public Service pay which had been established by then president, Dr Cheddi Jagan, had signed a statement recommending the pay out to be made based on its findings. But Yarde said that not a word was heard from Ganga when the government repudiated those recommendations. Explaining the distrust of the move to arbitration among the union's membership, Kirton said that it was well founded given the government's actions in 1994 and 1997. He explained that the anger of the supporters of the union's membership was the belief that the union's leadership was being coaxed down a path which in the past led to nowhere. Commenting on the award, Yarde said that it was less than the union expected but that he believed that the tribunal had made an award which was fair in the circumstances. He said that the union's demand in 1997 was a minimum wage of $19,075 a month and for 2000 28,586 a month. He noted that since then the Guyana dollar had depreciated in value. Also, that in its demand was a provision for an escalator clause which would have ensured increases to compensate for rises in inflation. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples