The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is trusting that the establishment of an Arbitration Panel to settle the dispute over wages, benefits and working conditions does not become a drawn out process and that the three members will be identified before the end of next week so that the process can be concluded before the end of the school term.
“We can’t sit here and know it won’t be dragged out but we are hoping for the best… the panel will be identified next week [and] we will be pushing for a timeframe of not more than two months,” GTU President Mark Lyte told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
Asked why the union did not push to have the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the arbitration panel drafted before calling off the countrywide strike by teachers on Thursday, he noted that given the amount of time taken to settle of the Terms of Resumption, nearly four hours, they “thought it would be prudent to come back later for arbitration ToR.”