Teacher mounts rooftop protest over salary

Mar 20, 2013 News

By Abena Rockcliffe
Usually in Guyana when one hears of protest action, other than in prison, it is normally associated with taking to the streets; but frustrated to the point where he thought he had no other alternative, Sherwin Williams yesterday took to the roof of Richard Ishmael Secondary School for his demonstration.

Sherwin Williams took to the roof for his demonstration.

Williams, a technical drawing teacher at the institution, was protesting after being told that he would not be paid until June.
The man, while on the roof, told Kaieteur News via a phone conversation that he is married with three children, and disclosed that he hadn’t been paid by the government for the year.
According to him, in January, he contracted malaria and as a result he initially applied for 14 days leave.
However, Williams said that since the ailment still had the better of him after the first 14 days, he then applied for another two weeks.
The obviously upset teacher told this publication that during his absence, he kept contact with the school’s head mistress, keeping her abreast with his health situation.
Williams further informed that he resumed duties on February 12 but was told by the head teacher that an order had been made to stop his salary.
He said that after taking other measures, he eventually went to the Ministry of Education yesterday where he met with a female only identifying herself as Ms. Singh.
He said that after putting his case to Ms. Singh, she “relaxed more”.
He recounted that he was told that no one could have found his resumption letter since it was filed away and “at the end of it all, I was told that I wouldn’t be paid until June”.
He noted that he had applied for one year’s leave but was only granted six months. According to Williams, officials thought that the 28 days leave he had taken pertained to the period he had requested.
Another incident cited was that his name was marked absent on the register even though he was at school helping with the flood after the Kingston koker broke.
The man remained on the roof until the Chief Executive Officer, Olato Sam arrived at the school to resolve the matter.
Previous attempts made by Guyana Teachers Union President Colin Bynoe and other officials to get the teacher to end his protest proved futile.
The man contended that he has a family to maintain and simply cannot make it until June without his pay.
When Williams came off the roof, he, the Chief Executive Officer, the head teacher and other officials entered into a meeting.
Kaieteur News was later informed that they were able to resolve the situation amicably.