… I am willing to give workers as much as the country can affordHead of State, Donald Ramotar, says that the way government has been arbitrarily imposing salary increases in recent years, is undesirable and as such he wants to have a negotiation with public servants this year, breaking the trend that has been vehemently opposed by unions.Ramotar made the disclosure, yesterday, when he met with the members of the media for the first time this year.He said,China Jerseys Wholesale, “I hope that this year they could have a good negotiated settlement and I hope that they can start talking soon so that we can have the right negotiations to have this in place.”The President said that he would want to have the matter expedited but did caution, “You don’t negotiate with yourself, it’s a two-way street.”Ramotar was asked to respond to recent statements made by Member of Parliament,Wholesale MLB Jerseys 2018, Manzoor Nadir,China NFL Jerseys, who was reported as saying that the salaries of public servants are sufficient to cover their needs.According to the President,Cheap NFL Jerseys, Nadir did clarify and said that he was taken out of context.The President said that as it relates to salaries, naturally people would always like to earn more money for themselves.Ramotar said that he has seen “areas where people work for bigger salaries and still askng for more increases.”On the matter of salaries to be paid to public servants the President said that, “what I would say is I am willing to give workers as much as the country can afford.”He said that the payment of salaries and increase is not something isolated to one’s desires but it has to do with ability, “your capacity your resources that you have at your disposal,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping,”Union bodies such as the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has for years decried what they called an abandonment of the Collective Bargaining Agreement process and has been arbitrarily imposing increases.The most recent spotlight on the lack of negotiated increases came when Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, announced that public servants would be receiving an increase that would not be more than five per cent.That announcement had sparked a spate of protests with both union and opposition arguing that the National Assembly had voted $4.4B for the revision of wages and salaries which could have catered for an increase of 20 per cent.It was not until Parliament met last Thursday that an explanation was given as to how the money was used and how much was actually set aside for the salary increase for public servants.Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh was at the time responding to A Partnership for National Unity’s Basil Williams,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, who sought the breakdown.Dr Singh in providing the formal answer to the House yesterday noted that in utilizing the $4.4B an amount of $1.6B was used to pay the five per cent increase.He said that employment shortfalls arising from new recruits amounted to $1.3B while employment costs shortfalls as a result of promotion totaled $300M.Dr Singh noted that $500M was utilized to pay the one-month bonus to the Disciplined Services.He stated too that another $700M was used as payment of employment cost shortfalls at subventions agencies while other employment shortfalls arising from payment of salary in lieu of leave and other activities was some $100M.Dr Singh did point out that some of the agencies were able to make the five percent increase payment from their own voted provisions.