The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) held their first day of conciliation yesterday at the Ministry of Labour, marking the start of a 21-day period to resolve their outstanding issues.
According to GTU President Mark Lyte, the two sides discussed clause number seven, which pertains to the timeframe for the agreement. The union has been seeking a four-year period from 2019-2023, while the government is proposing a timeframe of 2024, onwards. Lyte noted that, despite efforts to find common ground, no agreement has yet been reached on the matter.
“We spoke about [20]21-[20]23, we spoke about [20]22-[20]25; two years on our side, two years on their side. What we have been hearing [the] government saying repeatedly is that they can’t go back, they can only go forward,” he told members of the media yesterday following the meeting.
When asked about the possibility of forgoing its initial proposals and going with the government’s proposed timeframe, Lyte said that the union is now considering its options and will communicate with its members to determine the next course of action.
“That’s a matter for our membership to give us. We’ve had some talks and there are mixed views on it. So, we are prepared to have a consensus. Whatever the members want us to do, that’s what the officers will carry through. But we now have a mandate to go back to them and say, ‘look, this is the position’,” he explained.
The union head also noted that a next meeting has not yet been scheduled, but there will be email correspondence between the two parties as the days go by, in an attempt to arrive at an agreement on the timeframe. He further expressed hope that progress can be made earlier than expected.
“We have agreed that we will be communicating through emails and stuff like that to try to utilize the time to arrive at an agreeable time frame… 21 days will carry us [to] sometime in July. So, we’re hopeful that we can have some sort of an agreement to move the process forward earlier,” he said.
Should the parties arrive at no agreement at the end of the 21 days, the matter will move to arbitration, according to the grievance procedure. However, if an agreement is clinched within the period, conciliation talks will commence on the way forward for teachers, with regards to salaries.
While Lyte did not express enthusiasm for a possible outcome of arbitration, he noted that it presents its own challenges.
“That too presents its own challenge, if you look at our document, it presents its own challenge”.
Last Friday, the union and the MOE met at the Labour Ministry and arrived at an agreement on terms of resumption. This agreement brought an end to a gruelling 77-day strike by teachers, just two weeks before schools are scheduled to be closed for the August vacation.
