Acknowledging the growing trend of persons migrating from the public sector for better-paying jobs in the private sector or even further afield, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has contended that the government cannot do anything about this situation.
According to him, persons have a right to continuously elevate themselves and that it is the government’s responsibility to consistently train upcoming generations of workers.
“You cannot prohibit people from earning more and from doing better for themselves. The government has to give people opportunities and prepare them, that’s what we want for all of our people,” Jagdeo stated at a media conference.
He referred to Guyana’s local content legislation which mandates companies to utilise Guyanese goods and services in 40 sectors and employ a large percentage of the Guyanese workforce.
“In many other countries, the oil and gas sector is run by foreigners but our local content law allows it to be managed by Guyanese. The 6,000 people working there now are there because we have pushed the companies to hire our people and they are getting better wages,” the Vice President stated.
“We’re in a great position today but we can’t stop the development so that we can keep people in low paying jobs all their lives,” he added.
He pointed out that this labour migration trend is not visible in “low paying” jobs since the Government’s rates at the lower level is “more competitive than the private sector.”
To address the issue, Jagdeo disclosed that the Government is working on training Guyanese in different capacity and at different levels to fill the gaps while investing in mechanizing some industries like agriculture.
“People live in a free country, there should be labour mobility. Our obligation is to train more of our people,” he said.
Currently, he said while some countries are struggling with unemployment, Guyana has a surplus of jobs. Giving an example, he referred to the construction of the Demerara River Crossing and the East Coast four lane highway where the Chinese contractor is allowed to hire foreign-nationals and have had to do so in order to complete their works.
“If the Chinese had to hire all local labour, we would have had a big problem,” Jagdeo declared.
As the developments continue, the Vice President noted that the Government is engaged in good management practices to ensure that one sector does not suffer.
“We’re managing in a way to not have that happen,” he said.
