Unpaid city workers to intensify strike action

Hundreds of workers from all departments of the Mayor and City Council have still not been paid despite City Mayor Hamilton Green promising on June 21, that they would be paid on the following day and strike action seems imminent.

Guyana Labour Union Organising Secretary Clarence Whitehead, said his union is waiting to ensure that workers are not paid before strike action is taken. He told this publication: “I don’t want to foresee the future, but we want to exhaust today; if by tomorrow nothing is done, we will close all operation…but we are holding out because of the commitment made by the Mayor…both workers and the union frustrated.” The union represents a little more than 300 workers.

Guyana Local Government’s Workers Union President Dale Beresford has been quoted in the media as stating that workers attached to his union will continue to be on go-slow as City Hall scrambles to find finances to offset its expenses.

A visit to City Hall and other municipality locations saw little or no staff on hand. According to Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, who is also the chairman of the council’s finance committee, approximately Gy$8 million has to be sourced before the remaining workers are paid. Guyana Times understands that 45 per cent of City Council workers have been paid. Those paid have accounts at Scotiabank, Citizens Bank, the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) and the New Building Society.

Williams noted that between the months of January and June the council was able to secure some Gy$549 million, but the expenditure — Gy$691 million — of the municipality outweighed the revenue.

He added that the council will continue to find itself in a financially unstable position unless citizens realise that “the council cannot meet its financial obligations unless they pay their rates and taxes”. Additionally, Williams stated that there needs to be an increase in rates and taxes, as well as a reassessment of the valuation process. He told this publication that thus far the council has recruited two valuation officers who are expected to aggressively valuate properties that were once residential and have been transformed into businesses as well as those small businesses which have expanded over the years. About $75 million is needed every month by the municipality to pay workers but this sometimes proves very difficult, as the council’s revenue “travels on turtle’s back”. According to Williams, should a number of recommendations made by himself and other senior officials of the council be heeded, the municipality would not be in such a critical financial position.

Meanwhile, City Councillor Ranwell Jordan said that it was unfair that the staffers have not been paid, noting that this matter has been ongoing for far too long. Jordan added that at a recent Council meeting, City Treasurer Andrew Meredith announced that City Hall’s inability to pay staff could continue for the remaining months of the year.

Meanwhile the council’s contracted garbage collectors Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Service and Cevons Waste Management Service have both threatened to withdraw their services from the M&CC as the situation reached its climax. Morse Archer of Cevons Waste Management told Guyana Times on Monday that he has not been paid since January and, “it is really affecting us, our cash flow…the suppliers are not giving us credit”.

Lakenauth Puran of Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Service stated that his company “will not strike right away…within the next two to three weeks [if we don’t get paid] then we are going to withdraw. “They have a lot of money for us… Gy$30 million…it is affecting us a lot, fuel and workers,” he added.