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The Committee notes from the Government's report that the Guyana Trades Union Congress is no longer empowered to negotiate wages and other conditions of service on behalf of public sector workers, but rather that individual unions are now permitted to bargain with their respective agencies. The Government also indicates in its report that the management of public service agencies must consult with the Finance Ministry to ensure that agreements reached are within Government guidelines. The Committee must point out in this regard that public service workers and their organizations should be able to participate in designing the overall bargaining framework, which implies in particular that they must have access to all the financial, budgetary and other data enabling them to assess the situation on the basis of the facts. In addition, settlement of disputes arising in connection with the determination of terms and conditions of employment must be sought through negotiations between the parties or through independent and impartial machinery, such as mediation, conciliation and arbitration, established in such a manner as to ensure the confidence of the parties involved in accordance with Article 8 of the Convention. The Government is therefore requested to indicate the manner in which public servants and their unions have been able to participate in the framing of the guidelines and to specify the machinery established for the settlement of disputes, as well as to supply, with its next report, copies of the Government guidelines and any valid collective agreements in the public sector.

The Government is once again requested to provide the statistics requested under point V of the report form including, in particular, the number of public employees and of public employees' organizations, both by sectors of activity and by levels of functions.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1996.]