| While public servants are likely to get an increase in wages and salaries, the vast majority of the Guyanese people will continue to face severe economic hardships.This is according to Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Robert Corbin, who on Friday during a press conference,Cheap MLB Jerseys Free Shipping, said that no evaluation by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs),Wholesale MLB Jerseys, the propaganda of the Jagdeo Administration or the mantra of ‘sound macro economic factors’, can conceal the fact that Guyanese are reeling from the continuing economic challenges.While the administration denies that such hardships exist, Corbin said, the Guyanese people live it on a daily basis.“They struggle to get their children to school, to put food on the table and pay electricity and water bills. Each day, each week, each month is an exacting test.”According to Corbin, the PNCR has taken note of the fact that the burdens on the Guyanese people will increase as the global financial and economic crisis takes its toll on their relatives in the United States, Canada and Britain, causing them to be unable to send the remittances.Indeed, he said, the latest studies done by the IFIs forecast that remittances to Latin American and the Caribbean will decline by some seven percent.“This will not only be a blow to the local economy, as remittances have played a significant role in stabilising the exchange rate, but also to those families for whom the remittances were necessary for such things as the paying of school fees and the repayment of loans to the Bank.”According to Corbin, the PNCR hopes that President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Caricom Task Force will act with dispatch to develop plans for the states of the Caribbean so that they could ride out the current crisis and bring some measure of relief to the respective populations.This task, he noted, is particularly urgent in the case of Guyana. “Some form of economic relief is very urgent for this nation,Authentic Baltimore Ravens Jersey,” Corbin said.On Tuesday last, President Jagdeo announced that despite the country feeling the effects of the global financial and economic crisis in its real sector,Cheap Air Max 270, public sector employees will receive a pay increase this year.He explained that spending has been maintained.The Head of State stressed that tourism and financial services,Cheap NFL Jerseys, which are significant revenue earners and job providers in the Caribbean,Cheap Jerseys From China, have been severely affected by the crisis.Remittances have slumped as Caribbean nationals in the developed world cope with the economic depression, he noted.In Guyana, he said, the real sector has been affected, as a fall in global demand for export commodities has resulted in less revenue for the country.However, since the announcement, the PNCR has stated that the ‘unilateral’ decision to give a pay increase to public servants is the latest evidence that the administration is determined to undermine the collective bargaining process.According to the party,NFL Jerseys China, this is viewed as a ‘unilateral imposition of salaries for public servants.’Corbin stated that it is time the Jagdeo Administration respects the rights of the workers by reaching an agreement with the Guyana Public Service Union on an adequate wages and salaries package for hard-pressed, hard-working and grossly underpaid public servants.The recent International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) report stated that over the past decade, collective agreements in many public services have not been honoured by the Government of Guyana.According to the report, despite the fact that Guyanese workers have the right to bargain collectively, collective agreements recognised by the government with many trade unions have been replaced by circulars issued by the administration, ignoring the collective bargaining agreements.As such, the report states that government has been imposing salary/wage increases to all public service and public sector employees of state agencies since 2001. |
