The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has come out in strong condemnation of the recent deal struck between the government and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) after months of intense negotiations on the matter of teachers’ salaries.
In a release yesterday, the WPA described the terms imposed on teachers as a “starvation wage package,” asserting that the imposition of a ten per cent increase in the first instance is “grossly inadequate,” especially when one takes into consideration the steep rise in cost of living, measured against the financial capacity of the government.
“It is an insult to our teachers to grant them such a meagre increase on their already ridiculously low salaries while the government spends huge sums on other areas of the economy. Granting a ten per cent increase on salaries of $120,000 or less (which more than half of our teachers earn) is tantamount to `cruel and unusual punishment.’ How can a government which boasts of Guyana’s high growth rate fight so hard to deny its teachers a living wage?”