President Ali Says Better Salaries, More Benefits Underway for All Workers

• Numerous persons in Guyana are opting for temporary employment despite multiple long-term job openings. This is because people no longer place much value on work; thus, it is crucial to rekindle their understanding of these ideas.
• This was highlighted by President Dr. Irfaan Ali while delivering his address at the Twelfth Subregional International Labour Organisation Meeting of Caribbean Labour Ministers opening at the Guyana Marriot Hotel on Tuesday, May 23.
• Stressing that the labour framework within the Caribbean region needs to be changed, the President said that Guyana has already taken steps to make this happen.
• He voiced that the Government of Guyana is working towards making tertiary education free, expanding the technical vocational education training and building an international hospitality centre training institute.
• He said, “We, the Government of Guyana, are now providing the facilities and the technology for all our teachers to become trained teachers in the next three years, a tremendous, but necessary investment. We are building a framework of benefits and salary that allow us to retain our workers.”
• Emigration makes it difficult for the country to maintain a high intellectual standard and labour force, while potentially dampening productivity per capita and overall economic growth in the long run.
• That said, these efforts should aid in retaining the country’s labour force and reducing brain drain, as with the current global labour challenges that persist, Caribbean countries have now become a “recruitment ground” for more developed states.
• Guyana along with Jamaica and Haiti are the only Caribbean nations in the top 10 rank out of 177 countries on the 2022 edition of the human flight and brain drain index, being ranked in tenth, second and ninth places respectively.

(Source: Guyana Chronicles)