{"id":25379,"date":"2025-01-16T14:48:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=25379"},"modified":"2025-01-16T14:49:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T14:49:42","slug":"jagdeo-defends-public-sector-pay-hikes-slams-opposition-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/jagdeo-defends-public-sector-pay-hikes-slams-opposition-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Jagdeo Defends Public Sector Pay Hikes, Slams Opposition Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><em>By Samuel Sukhnandan | December 2, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ruling People&#8217;s Progressive Party (PPP) has strongly defended the recent public sector salary increases, which amount to an 80 percent rise over the past five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, General Secretary of the PPP, responded to opposition criticism, calling their dismissal of the raises as a &#8220;pittance&#8221; unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the new pay arrangements, public sector employees will receive a 10 percent retroactive salary increase for 2024, with an additional 8 percent raise for 2025, as announced by President Dr. Irfaan Ali. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jagdeo emphasized that these hikes reflect a significant boost in the public sector wage bill, which has risen from $126.8 billion in 2020 to $210.7 billion, marking an increase of $83.9 billion per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jagdeo dismissed opposition claims about the pay increases, pointing out that the opposition\u2019s criticisms were fueled by frustration that the wage hikes have been positively received by public sector unions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He noted that the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) had signed off on the two-year agreement, underscoring the support for the wage hikes from the public sector workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the salary increases, Dr. Jagdeo highlighted other benefits for public sector employees, including the provision of 100 duty-free vehicles, increases in travel, housing, and qualification allowances, as well as debunching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He emphasized that these measures collectively improve the public sector\u2019s competitiveness, positioning it as a more attractive career option that can rival private sector employment opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Jagdeo further assured that employees in public enterprises, even those whose unions had not signed agreements, would also benefit from the announced salary increases and associated benefits, demonstrating the government&#8217;s commitment to enhancing the welfare of public servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This latest round of pay hikes, along with the accompanying benefits, is viewed as a key part of the government\u2019s strategy to improve public sector service and retain skilled workers in the public sector workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Sukhnandan | December 2, 2024 The ruling People&#8217;s Progressive Party (PPP) has strongly defended the recent public sector salary increases, which amount to an 80 percent rise over&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25382,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25379\/revisions\/25382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}