The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) yesterday protested over the absence of a multi-year agreement – though a meeting had been scheduled for later in the afternoon – drawing a sharp response from the Ministry of Education and a warning.
In explaining the protest action outside of the Ministry of Finance, GTU President, Mark Lyte, stated that the issue has been stretched out for too many years and it’s time the government and the union come to an agreement.
He noted that union representatives met with three Government Ministers in April and shared their concerns. Most of them dealt with the financial issues related to the last multiyear agreement, the two per cent difference for 2017; the de-bunching matter that should have been implemented by now; the issues of salary anomalies dating back to 2017; the nonpayment of the clothing allowance; the clause which speaks to the benefit rolling over without them having to come to the table to negotiate once again and not having a collective bargaining agreement.
“We have always been a patient group and always been a union that is patient. In fact with the last administration we did three years waiting before an agreement was signed. So, we have always been, 2015 to 2018, we have always been patient so we believe it’s about time. We have given this government almost the same amount of time [therefore] we believe the time is right for them to come to the table and speak to us. Obviously we are better off as a nation. It should not have taken that long and that why some persons are saying we are lenient, but we always allow [time] for the process to take place. So, I don’t want to say that we are lenient, I want to say that we are professional, we are organised and we believe in the process”, the GTU President said.
Lyte stressed that yesterday’s protest was not in reaction to what the executive wants but what the General Council requested a long time ago.
“Today’s action was pending for a while. You would know that we did say at general council in the month of March, they did give the mandate to the executive to carry out several industrial actions. We delayed those actions against the wishes of general council because we wanted to have dialogue, after we were invited to have some dialogue, we decided that we are going to engage government; we are going to engage the representatives of the government with a view to have some of the issues resolved. We know some of them will take time and we were aware that they are some that could be addressed immediately
Additionally, the union head noted that they have also been doing follow-up meetings but it appears as though the issues are being dragged out, so it’s about time the matter is addressed immediately.
“We did a follow up and we realised that nothing was done as of the meeting of April and a meeting of May and that I believe triggered us [into] taking some actions. So, we are out here to vent our concerns and we are still asking that we come to the table because that is where the agreements will have to be discussed and dialogue must take place. Teachers don’t belong in the streets and we are hoping that we can engage the government at the earliest opportunity.” Lyte pointed out.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) described the protest action as political, disingenuous, and opportunistic.
In statement, the MoE said that government continues to engage the union as the union had been invited to a follow-up meeting at the Office of the President scheduled for 09:00 hours yesterday. The union accepted the invitation. Later in the afternoon, the Ministry said that the GTU asked if the meeting could be postponed to 15.00 hours today as 09:00 hours “is too early for the union.” The government, ever interested in continuing the engagement, agreed, the ministry said.
The Ministry labelled it as opportunistic and disingenuous, that the GTU mounted a protest action at 10 yesterday morning about matters that are currently under examination at the aforesaid engagement meetings. The last such meeting was held on May 22.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, noted that the union is aware that only this week, two of the matters raised (clothing allowance and Whitley Council entitlements) in the previous engagements were resolved and it was only on Monday they were copied on correspondence to that effect.
With Member of Parliament, Coretta McDonald, being the General Secretary of the GTU and a member of APNU, the MoE opined that the motive behind the protest is just to build content for her party’s talk shows even though all the matters protested about are matters inherited from the APNU+AFC government.
All of the matters, the MoE assured, are being addressed by the government in the best way possible and the union is aware of this and matters are under discussion between the union and the government for another multi-year agreement, the last one having expired under APNU.
Going ahead, the ministry said that they are now looking at another deal with will see the “provisions which include inter alia duty-free concessions for teachers, scholarships for post-graduate programmes, the housing revolving fund, salary increases, better remote area incentives for teachers in the hinterland, more clerical support at schools, resolution of the 2016 fiasco where salary scales for new teachers were changed, increments for additional qualification and less academic workload on headteachers and deputy headteachers.”
MoE asserted that there was therefore “absolutely no reason” for yesterday morning’s protest except to grandstand and claim credit amongst teachers for matters that are well on their way to being realised. “The GTU must consider whether it wishes to continuously be used by a failing opposition member Coretta McDonald or if it wants to work to bring benefits to teachers.”
The ministry sought to assure teachers that while the government prefers to work with the union, if that should become impossible, the interests of teachers will still be paramount and prioritized in the government’s considerations and that will seek to ensure benefits for each and every teacher.
