| After many failed meetings with the Ministry of Finance, over two dozenBureau of Statistics Staff walks in circles in front of the High Street,Cheap Nike Free Run Shoes, Kingston branch protesting their pension plan among other issues.staff members of the Bureau of Statistics carried out protest action in front of the Bureau’s High Street, Kingston branch.Some of the placards read, “Establish the bureau of statistics rules and regulations manual with unions input,” “Institution of Gratuity for years of service,” “Vacancies remained unfilled despite qualified applications expressing interest,” “We give you inflation rate, the census, economic growth rate, gives us pension,Nike Air Vapor Max Flyknit,” “There is no provision for pension for 95% of Bureau staff,” “Remove bunching old and new staff earning the same salary,” “Return duty free concession to statisticians.”At the protest it was explained that after years of trying to get the management to set up a Pension Plan, members of staff of the Bureau of Statistics sent a signed petition to the Minister of Finance seeking his assistance in the establishment of a Pension Scheme/ Superannuation Plan in June 2009. However, this led to the selection of a Senior Staff Committee which was mandated to interact with the Finance Minister as it related to the formation of the superannuation plan. Nevertheless,Nike Air Max 97 Silver Bullet Australia, to date the Ministry has done nothing to secure a pension plan since many senior staff members are facing retirement without any benefits.According to the Bureau’s branch Secretary Michel Layne who has been working with the organisation for over 10 years, there is no collective bargaining agreement and since the year 2000, members of staff at the Bureau have been meeting with management and the Finance Ministry to have the problems addressed with closure to the issues. However,Air Max Zero Be True, to date nothing has been done, and many staff members, after serving for over a decade, have nothing to receive after retirement.“We just keep getting promises and promises all the time.” Layne noted.Adding that the Guyana Public Service Union is their representative, Miss Layne said nothing seemed to being done and a final decision to protest was adopted by the Bureau’s staff.“We had a meeting Monday with management stating that the Minister of Finance would want to meet us on our issues. However, we were supposed to meet with the Minister the following Wednesday but we only received a message that the Minister would see us on Friday but no official documentation of the time was given…this has been going on too long and we need results not promises,” Layne explained.Ian Manifold,Air Max 2018 Shoes, who is a Chief Statistician in the Bureau of Statistics, said the other grievances were allowed to fester over the years due to the Management of the Bureau of Statistics’ refusal to sit and have dialogue with the workers’ representative, and the Guyana Public Service Union.Adding that there are also concerns of duty free concessions for statisticians,Buy Air Max 1, Mr. Manifold said the Bureau came into being as a semi-autonomous body in 1991, and statisticians were entitled to duty free concessions since their job entailed lots of travelling.He explained that the Finance Ministry decided not to administer the duty free concession in 2007 without giving any reason.“We want duty free concessions attached to the position of statistician,” Manifold said.“Some contracts of employment for statistician have been modified and the duty free concession taken out, without reason…while some others have the concession added to the names and not the position. This needs to be reviewed since the position should be a qualification and not the individual,” one of the protestors explained. |
