The GTU yesterday urged teachers to observe an “Isolation Day” today from face-to-face teaching in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases despite a warning from the Minister of Labour that they would be docked a day’s pay.
Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) President Mark Lyte at a virtual press conference urged both paying and non-paying members of the GTU to take a stand against “bullyism” from the government in light of the current spike in COVID-19 numbers among teachers and students.
Lyte in his call for support of the planned “Isolation Day” said to teachers that their health is much more valuable than a one-day pay cut. “You have to be alive to even enjoy your salary…the threat of pay cut must not be heeded”, he declared.
The union’s action comes in light of its failed calls to the Ministry of Education to close schools across the country for two weeks in a bid to staunch the growth of COVID-19 cases.
Schools last week reopened across the country for face-to-face learning for grades 8-12 students. But with a number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded among students and teachers and the suspected presence of the very contagious Omicron variant here, the union has been asking for the closure of schools.
“The Union has taken the position to have an ‘Isolation Day’ from school on Monday, January 10, 2021. This day will be set aside for no formal face-to-face or virtual teaching. The GTU has written the MoE urging them to close all schools for face-to-face engagement for fourteen (14) days, during which teachers will teach virtually. We believe that our teachers can only teach if they are alive, and students can learn when they are healthy. A nation’s health is its wealth. We ask every teacher to yield to this call and stand in solidarity for saving lives,” Lyte said in the missive to teachers on Saturday.
However, Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton in an address yesterday which was broadcast live on state television and government’s social media pages said the action is legally flawed.
“Teachers in Guyana ought to be properly advised that heeding the call of the GTU to participate in the “Isolation Day” may be considered as an unauthorised absence from work, abandonment of their students and a gross dereliction of their duties,” he said, before pointing out that there was no formal discussion between the GTU and the Education Ministry that ended in deadlock to trigger such action.
According to Hamilton, “There is no prohibition regarding strike action by teachers and they can exercise freedom to strike… but procedures for proposing industrial action should be in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement between the Ministry of Education and the GTU.”
The Labour Minister likened the one-day action to that of a strike. Nonetheless, Lyte dismissed the comments and stated that the Minister’s address is an act of “bullying.”
According to the Union President they are prepared to offer relief to any of their members who might be impacted by participating in the industrial action.
Also rapping the Minister for comments yesterday morning was the GTU’s General Secretary and APNU+AFC Member of Parliament Coretta McDonald.
McDonald labelled Hamilton’s comments as “foolish” as she advised members that they are entitled to exhibit their disappointment at the system they have to work in.
“As Minister of Labour he should have called the Ministry of Education and the GTU and ask for an immediate settlement rather than making statements,” McDonald said.
She and Lyte accused Hamilton of being “asleep” as other pressing issues such as the lack of engagement, salary negotiations, the mandatory vaccination policy and other concerns of the union remain unaddressed.
“If you want to resolve this issue call the union and the ministry together rather than jumping around making threats to the teachers,” McDonald posited.
Furthermore, McDonald questioned why the ministry hasn’t objected to the decision taken by Bishops’ High, Queen’s College and St Stanislaus College to close face-to-face school for a two-week period.
Like Lyte, she also called on teachers to “stand together” and press for safe working environments not only for themselves but colleagues and their students.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand could not be reached for comment yesterday.
During the press conference, Lyte reiterated that the Ministry of Education has been guilty of breaching both the gazetted COVID-19 guidelines as well as the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) social distancing advice.
Students are being made to sit two to a bench while classes are in session which clearly breaches the Ministry of Health’s six feet apart mandate as well as the WHO’s minimum one metre apart advice, he said, before noting that education officers are going to schools instructing that where seating is limited that be done.
“We have seen a shifting of the goalposts. The Ministry of Education, they have breached the COVID-19 protocol established by the COVID Task Force that still to this day is saying a safe social distance is six feet apart. That hasn’t changed in the COVID gazetted order. Alright, let us see that we are looking at what is recommended by WHO as a safe distance of one metre. Is it safe to place two children on a bench?” Lyte asked a virtual meeting of teachers and parents on Friday evening.
He lambasted the Ministry of Education for the haste in which it reopened those schools without properly sanitizing or putting prevention mechanisms in place. The union added that it deemed the current spike in COVID-19 cases as a danger for teachers, learners and their families.
“We believe keeping teachers and students out of crowded schools will help to reduce the present spike in COVID positive cases in Guyana while at the same time schools which have ventilation, water, and washroom issues will be fixed by the MoE. Also, we know that any caring government will listen to the voices of its people,” the letter concluded.
The ministry and union have been at odds as it relates to the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning amidst skyrocketing COVID-19 numbers.
