Although Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine maintains that negotiations on wages increases are still ongoing with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), the ministry has already instructed that differentiated increases, ranging from 10% to 1%, be paid to teachers from next month.
The instruction, which was issued via circular ED: 20/14/25, dated September 13, 2016, has prompted the union to accuse the ministry of imposing wages/salaries increases after abandoning negotiations.
The government has similarly announced a final offer to the public service union of differentiated wage increases for public servants ranging from 10% at the lowest scale to 1% at the highest, with payouts to begin next month.
“GTU is very upset. We view this as an imposition. We were assured at the beginning of this year that unions would’ve been able to exercise their right to collective bargaining. That is not how collective bargaining works,” General Secretary of GTU Corretta McDonald told Stabroek News.
She explained that the union had been having regular meetings with the Ministry of Education (MoE) until the first week in August, after which the next three scheduled meetings simply did not happen. Beginning in January, meetings were also held on January 22, February 12, April 13, May 4, May 13, June 3, June 15 and July 20.
“We met in the first week of August, where we realised that the Permanent Secretary simply could not make commitments on our financial requests so we asked that a senior official from the Ministry of Finance be present at all other meetings. It seems this individual was never sourced since the next three meetings were put on hold because this person could not make it…,” she said.
McDonald noted that it was the union’s belief that the negotiation was being put on hold to facilitate the negotiation with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), after which the ministry would have returned to the table with the GTU.
“We expected to be called back to the table after negotiations were completed with GPSU but that didn’t happen. We were not even written asking whether our members would accept the same increase. Instead, we received on September 20, 2016 a circular signed by the Permanent Secretary, dated September 13, 2016, saying that teachers will be paid this increase retroactive to January,” McDonald said.
The circular, which was addressed to the Regional Executive Officers and Regional Education Officers of Regions 1 to 10 as well as the Principal Education Officer of Georgetown specifically directed “all accounting and personnel staff…to take appropriate action” so that all persons in employment as of August 31, 2016 will be paid the appropriate percentage on their salary as of December 31, 2015. This increase will be paid with effect from January 1, 2016.
The union, which had written to the Permanent Secretary twice in August without having received a response, met with Roopnaraine last Thursday to express its dissatisfaction. Stabroek News understands that at this meeting the minister gave the impression that he was unaware of the existence of the circular instructing the payments.
In an invited comment yesterday, Roopnaraine told Stabroek News that the union is free to express its acceptance or rejection of the document to him and he will address it as part of the ongoing negotiations.
“I, however, do not wish to tell you too much about an ongoing negotiation as this might prejudice the process. As soon as we reach a point where an agreement is reached, we will issue a release,” he said.
The union is next scheduled to meet with the minister on Wednesday, after which it is expected that a special General Council will be called to decide the way forward.
The GTU has asked government for massive pay raises over the next five years, which GTU President Mark Lyte had previously argued are needed to ensure that teachers are paid a “living wage.”
According to the proposed memorandum of agreement for the years 2016 to 2020, the union is asking for a 40% increase in 2016, a 45% increase in 2017, 50% in 2018, 50% in 2019 and 50% in 2020. All of these represent a cumulative increase of 585% over the salaries currently being earned.
The union submitted its proposal for a new multi-year agreement after the expiration of the 2010 to 2015 agreement on December 31, 2015. That agreement provided for teachers to receive a 5% across-the-board increase in each of the years covered under the agreement. It followed a similar agreement which provided teachers 5% increases from 2006 to 2010.
With the imposed differentiated increases, most teachers will receive a 10% increase this year as a large number of the teaching service consists of either Temporary Qualified Masters and Mistresses or Assistant Masters and Mistresses (Trained Teachers) who at the scale of Teaching Service Band Three were making less than $100,000 per month.
