Unacceptable Executive Lawlessness in Conflict with Labour Rights of Workers and their Unions.
President Irfaan Ali’s latest provocative conduct, with respect to forgoing negotiations with the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) and initiating on October 2, 2023 direct engagements with some teachers at State House, is in total violation of the Constitution and Laws of Guyana. This suggests that on his ascent to office he hypocritically swore on the Quran to uphold the said Constitution and Laws of Guyana, since instead of leading by example as he ought to do, his actions are in disdain of the Constitution, Laws of Guyana, Parliament ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions and binding Agreements for Avoidance and Settlements of Disputes. The President’s ill-advised approach is an act of negotiation in bad faith in violation of Article 23(1) of the Trades Union Recognition Act and which apparently, is intended to set the stage for another arbitrary imposition of salaries, allowances and other conditions of work.
Further, Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) condemns this clear display of executive lawlessness, which history would reveal had been a major stimulant of the crippling 57-days strike of April-June 1999.
The GPSU also calls on workers and citizens, alike, to support Trade Unions demands for Government to return to the legally stipulated collective bargaining process by rejecting the President and his cohorts’ anti-Trade Union posture. The people should also demand that the President put into action his vociferous proclamations of the necessity for collective bargaining, which he made in 2016 as an opposition parliamentarian. Surely, his government must be reminded that it was the workers who elevated him and his Cabinet to the positions they now exploit to the detriment of the workers.
Government’s intransigent behaviour is rapidly tearing the delicate fabric of national unity. Sowing these seeds of division in an already racially and politically fragmented country, at a time when our enemies are marshalling for our destruction is only going to reap unrest, poverty, criminal conduct, unpatriotic behavior and suffering on a scale which is unfathomable at this time. We can only hope that good sense prevails in the national interest.
160 Regent & Shiv Chanderpaul Drive
Bourda,
Georgetown.
October 4, 2023