A meeting between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education to iron out concerns about the January salary received by teachers was “inconclusive.”
According to GTU president Mark Lyte, the union is concerned that back payments received by teachers in January did not reflect the increases which were agreed following nine days of strike action last year.
The union and the Ministry of Education in October agreed that teachers who in 2015 were earning below $100,000 will get a 12% increase on their salaries for 2016, while those who earned $100,000 and above will receive an 8% increase. Specific reference was made of the fact that the percentage already paid for 2016 should form a part of the payment to be received.
For 2017, the interim 8% and 6% granted on the December, 2016 salary shall be final with no additional increase. Specifically, those who received salaries below $100,000 per month received an 8 % increase, while salaries $100,000 and above received a 6% increase.
Meanwhile for 2018, there will be an 8% increase across the board on the December, 2017 salary.
At the time, Lyte indicated that the union forfeited additional 2017 increases as a “compromise” with the expectation that the 2016 increases will have a ripple effect. It is this ripple effect that has not materialised.
Information contained in the relevant national budgets show that in 2015, a TS4 teacher paid at the highest end of the scale earned a gross salary of $108,437. A teacher at that same scale was in 2018 earning $121,839 following a 6% increase to $114,943 in 2016 and a further 6% increase in 2017.
The newly agreed increases should reflect a salary of $124,138 in 2018 and $117,111 in 2017 following 8% and 6% increases. Teachers at this scale were therefore expected to receive a monthly difference in payment for 2016 of $2,168 and $2,300 in 2017.
It is not clear what were the actual sums paid. The union has only stated that the 2017 back pay does not reflect the 2016 increase.
Lyte noted that efforts are being made to reach Finance Secretary Michael Joseph to have the matter settled but so far a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education has been “inconclusive”.
At the Friday meeting, the union presented its own calculation of the payments that should have been received.
Meanwhile, efforts to implement a de-bunching scale for teachers are underway with a final scale expected to be finalised by the end of March with payments beginning in April.
De-bunching has been part of the union’s multi-year agreement since 2011 and last year the Ministry agreed to a lump sum of $350 million to facilitate payments for the period 2011 to 2018.
The sum has since been distributed equally across the more than 10,000 teachers within the system. Those who were employed for the entire eight-year period received $36,490.
