“Sign the agreement now! Sign the agreement now!” was the demand that met President David Granger yesterday when he visited the Woolford Avenue headquarters of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) in the first stop of his May Day visit to labour unions.
Granger appeared unfazed by the teachers’ demand, which comes almost two and a half years since their union would have submitted a multi-year proposal for wages, salaries and non-salary benefits.
The proposal was not accepted and instead after two years negotiations broke down between the union and Ministry of Education and Granger sought to resolve the impasse with the establishment of a high-level task force to address the proposal. The task force, which comprised representatives of the Ministries of Education, Finance, Communities, Public Service and Presidency as well as representatives of the union, completed its work and submitted its report to Minister of Education Nicolette Henry on April 6th, 2018.