President David Granger has once again intervened to stave off a planned countrywide strike by teachers, who have been offered a new proposal on wages.
Granger and a Ministry of Education team met with executives of the Guyana teachers’ Union (GTU) this morning at State House, where the new proposal was made. Details of what was offered to the union are unclear but following the one-hour meeting, General Secretary of the GTU Coretta McDonald told reporters that “there were some proposals thrown on the table.”
She added that while the union is open to the proposals, which address salary increases and debunching, it still has to do “more consultations”
“We still need to do some tidying up on both sides. So, we are going to meet again very soon to resolve those issues that have not been resolved, so that our teachers can start smiling, maybe at the end of this month, maybe in November but most likely in December,” she said.
With the union and the Education Ministry unable to reach agreement on wages and benefits, resulting in a nationwide strike at the start of the new school term. The strike was called off after the dispute was referred to arbitration. However, the union threatened to restart the strike after government unilaterally appointed the chairman of the arbitration panel.
Asked if the government has agreed to the union’s request that Leyland Lucas be withdrawn as chairman of the arbitration panel set up by the Department of Labour, McDonald noted that they “have not reached that stage as yet.”
“There are offers being thrown on the table, so if those offers are being bought into, then we will have all of those letters sent out there rescinded,” she explained, while adding that numbers still have to be worked into the offers that have been placed on the table.
“On Wednesday, that meeting will bring closure to an acceptance of the offer [once certain] fineries that we have to work out between today and Wednesday [are worked out]. Working them out will say to us whether we go [to] arbitration or we stick with the new offers on the table,” McDonald clarified.
Some of these “fineries” appear to relate to financial information, which the union is expecting to receive after tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting.
The union was invited to the meeting by the Minister of Education Nicolette Henry.
Present were GTU President Mark Lyte, McDonald and several other members of the GTU executive. Representing the Ministry were Henry, Chief Education Officer Marcel Hutson, the ministry’s acting Permanent Secretary and its Human Resources Manager.
“The GTU wants to thank the President for his intervention at this time and we are hoping that with what has been said this morning, on Wednesday, hopefully, we are able to resolve this issue fully,” McDonald said.
President Granger had previously intervened to stave of a planned strike last year, resulting in the establishment of a joint task force to address salaries and other benefits. However, government subsequently abandoned the task force’s proposals, saying that it could not afford to meet them. The GTU has been seeking a new multi-year wages agreement since 2015.
‘End of the road’
Following the meeting, President Granger has signalled that the two sides are now closer to a resolution than ever before.
In a comment released by the Ministry of the Presidency, Granger said that the two sides have found “common ground” and are working towards a favourable outcome. It is expected, he added, that an announcement will be made by Friday.
“We have had some hiccups but we now seem to be coming to the end of the road. There seems to be wide areas of what I would say common acceptance of what needs to be done. Minister of Education had a long meeting on Friday, October 5 with the Union and… all of the points that were at issue between the two sides were discussed… We have agreed that the two sides would meet again on Wednesday, October 10. The intention is to create a basis for an agreement between the two sides as early as possible, possibly by Friday,” he was quoted as saying.
President Granger further noted that the teachers can be assured that the government is concerned about the issues raised and is working to address these.
“They are not being ignored or anything. We, of course, expect that the Teachers’ Union consult with its members and the Teachers’ Union expects that we, the Government, consult with the Ministry of Finance. So we have reached a broad area in which, I would say that there is common ground. I don’t want to call it an agreement but we have reached common ground and I think the people of Guyana could look forward to an amicable resolution within days. It is a forward-looking agreement,” he said.
