Georgetown : Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence who also has responsibility for labour, is happy with Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan’s decision with regards to respecting the collective bargaining process before public servants’ salary increases are announced.
Minister Jordan announced that salary increases for public servants, for 2016, have to await the conclusion of discussions with the trade unions to facilitate the process of collective bargaining.
“I think it is the best budget we can have under this circumstances… when I heard the Minister said that despite public servants will be a little dismayed, that he has not announced an increase for them, and the reason he posited is because he is dialoguing with the unions, that made me felt so good,” Minister Lawrence told the Government Information Agency (GINA).
The Social Protection Minister explained that this shows that government respects the unions, who are the workers’ representatives.
Meanwhile in the social services sector, over 50,000 pensioners will benefit from an Old Age Pension increase that will take their amount to $18,200, as against the $17,000 they are receiving. In the short space of eight months, the Coalition Government has been able to increase old age pension by 38.7 percent, the largest increase in recent memory.
According to Minister Lawrence, while she would have loved to give pensioners more, “we are getting there”. However, she said with the announcement of the exemption of paying travel tax when travelling on a Guyana passport and fee for a driver’s licence, senior citizens have a “package.”
Additionally, over 9,600 people will benefit from an almost 24 percent increase in public assistance; which has seen an increase from $6,500 to $7,300 since this Coalition Government took office.
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