Government using COVID-19 to punish workers, GPSU

The labour body Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) is accusing the Irfaan Ally administration of using the current global pandemic as its excuse to deny workers improved salaries and better conditions of employment.

“The prevailing pandemic environment is also being capitalised on as an obstacle to improving workers deserving conditions of service and remuneration,” Yarde complained at a news conference earlier this week.

Yarde wants his complaints understood in the context of the global pandemic which has helped spiked increases in the local cost of living.

The GPSU said the global pandemic which has killed some 3.8 million globally and more than 450 Guyanese continues to disrupt economic progress, hamper social relations and interrupt sporting activities.

It has also interfered with recreational activities, throw into disorder educational pursuits, and blocked people from enjoying vacations.

According to GPSU’s Yarde, the highly contagious and deadly virus, first detected in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, has also stifled the functioning of the judiciary and other key national activities.

In addition, the pandemic has been draining on peoples’ mental health and can spur negative implications, Yarde warned noting that this might have resulted in many resisting to constant confinement instituted to help curb the spread of the virus.

“Similarly, in terms of treatment, we have had to await the advancement of scientific progressof the develop countries for the discovery of some laboratory development to contain the spread of this virus…to achieve herd immunity,” the GPSU President said.

He reminded that from the inception of the pandemic in Guyana, the workers representative has been extremely active sensitising its members about the seriousness of the viral spread and has made every effort to ensure their safety; that they are provided with PPEs (personal protective equipment) and all other available means of protection so that they would be properly equipped to discharge their responsibilities. 

Local nurses should be treated better by the government, Yarde said. He said the government should keep promises made to hardworking local healthcare workers.

“Promises that were made and which created legitimate expectations of these most valuable resources to-date have not been fulfilled, but daily more demands are placed on them.  As is easily recognisable, the infection rate and the death rate of COVID infected persons have constantly been increasing notwithstanding the administering or the inoculation of persons with vaccines that have been acquired,” Yarde said.