Georgetown, Guyana – November 15, 2026: In a sharply worded weekend statement, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has publicly rebuked President Irfaan Ali for his unilateral Friday declaration that public sector workers would receive a 2026 pay increase under the terms of a multi-year collective bargaining accord that formally expired at the end of 2025. The union’s condemnation comes as formal wage negotiations for 2026 remain completely deadlocked, nearly a full year after the union first tabled a formal demand for a 35 percent salary adjustment to offset skyrocketing household living costs.
The GPSU emphasized that no presidential edict can pre-empt legally protected collective bargaining processes, nor can a lapsed labour agreement be arbitrarily extended to govern a new wage cycle without mutual consent from both negotiating parties. Union officials noted that the now-expired multi-year deal had previously delivered an 8 percent salary hike in January 2024, followed by a 10 percent increase for 2025, but all terms for 2026 must be negotiated in full compliance with Guyana’s 1987 Dispute Avoidance and Settlement Agreement, national constitutional provisions, and formal national labour legislation.
The union’s 35 percent pay rise submission was not an arbitrary figure, GPSU representatives explained: internal economic analysis shows that a minimum-wage household with one child faces a 31 to 35 percent gap between gross monthly income and the combined cost of essential goods and services, including staple food, safe housing, critical healthcare, and basic utility bills. Even a full 35 percent increase, which would add roughly GY$35,000 to a base monthly salary of GY$102,000, would still fall short of a true living wage, the union stressed, and only represents a minimal first step to alleviate crippling financial hardship for frontline public servants who keep core government services operating nationwide.
Since the union first formally requested negotiations in December 2025, the Ali administration has repeatedly requested extensions of time to prepare its bargaining position, and to date has failed to submit any formal counter-proposal to the union’s wage demand. The GPSU further accused the government of abandoning a written 2024 commitment to hold monthly scheduled meetings with union leadership to address public service working conditions, and condemned what it described as a deliberate stalling tactic: by delaying formal negotiations until the final weeks of 2026, any eventual wage adjustment backdated to January 1 of this year would be paid out as a single lump sum, subject to a 25 percent marginal income tax rate that would effectively claw back a large portion of the financial relief workers have needed for months. The union added that billions of Guyanese dollars earmarked for public service compensation are already allocated in the 2026 national budget, making the administration’s refusal to enter good-faith negotiations entirely unjustifiable amid a relentless national cost-of-living crisis.
Opposition political leadership has also weighed in on the impasse: Aubrey Norton, leader of the People’s National Congress Reform and head of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentary caucus, told local outlet Demerara Waves Online News that his party had previously tabled a separate proposal for a 25 percent across-the-board wage increase for all public workers, a measure he argued would not undermine ongoing collective bargaining processes. Norton noted that the government has never issued a formal response to that proposal, and emphasized that surging cost of living metrics demand at minimum a 25 percent pay adjustment to protect the basic well-being of working Guyanese households.