— teachers, nurses, soldiers among others to benefit

PUBLIC servants will from this week receive Government’s promised differentiated salary increases which range from 1 per cent to 10 per cent, Finance Minister Winston Jordan announced on Monday.At a press conference held at his Main Street Office, Minister Jordan said, “The money would be in pay packets this week… at the end of this week and next week.”

He urged all public servants to “please spend wisely”. The salary increases will be retroactive from January this year. In August, the Government announced that it has made a final offer of 10 per cent increase in salaries for public servants earning below $99,000, and an offer of 1-6 per cent for other categories of workers.

Government’s position has been rejected by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which represents the rights and welfare of workers.

GPSU’s initial proposal was for 40 per cent across the board for public servants. This was subsequently reduced to 25 per cent. In response, the Government proposed a differentiated approach to the increases with the aim of providing the greatest relief to public servants at the bottom of the salary structure.

As such, Government proposed a 6 per cent increase for persons earning less than $100,000, a 5 per cent increase for those earning between $100,000 and $300,000, 4.5 per cent for persons earning $300,000 to $800,000, while persons earning $800,000 to $1,000,000 will receive a 2 per cent increase and those earning over $1M will receive $1 per cent increase.

Traditional public servants including teachers, nurses, soldiers, the disciplined services, as well as some semi-autonomous agencies like the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), and the Bureau of Statistics will also benefit from the increases, Minister Jordan stated.