Addressing a media conference at his office on Wednesday, President Irfaan Ali says he plans to have extensive consultations with teachers all across the country on the matter of a comprehensive benefits package.
His statement came in response to questions on whether his government is in talks with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on the comprehensive package being put together for teachers; and how those negotiations are progressing.
He said he intends to consult not only with the union but with the teachers themselves.
He did not address whether his government is currently in talks with the union; and the progress if any, birthed from those negotiations.
Ali added that that he had made a promise to have extensive consultation with teachers across the country declaring, “I love to meet people. I love people.”
“I feel (lost) when people are not around me…that is why you would see me with the people all the time. That is my happiest moment,” he went on.
He boasted that he can be seen in every region “with our beautiful teachers…talking to our teachers. Hearing from them.”
According to Ali, what he wants to do is “create an enabling environment” in which every teacher will grow and have a better standard of living.
On that point he then said that he will be consulting not only with the union, but with the teachers themselves.
Mixed signals have come from the government on talks with the union on a multi-year package.
On May 30 this year teachers protested over the absence of a multi-year agreement – though a meeting had been scheduled for later that afternoon with the government.
In explaining the protest action outside of the Ministry of Finance on May 30, GTU President, Mark Lyte, stated that the issue had been stretched out for too many years and it was time the government and the union came 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.
On May 30, the Ministry of Education (MoE) described the protest action as political, disingenuous, and opportunistic.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, noted that the union was aware that only that week, two of the matters raised (clothing allowance and Whitley Council entitlements) in the previous engagements were resolved.
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.
