Public School teachers to engage industrial action from Monday

May 01, 2015 News

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– move could considerably affect pupils/students
Teachers within the public education system will on Monday commence industrial action. This announcement was yesterday made by President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Mark Lyte, who at a press conference told media operatives, that the action is one intended to retaliate to Government’s non-payment of debunching monies to teachers.

The industrial action he revealed will take the form of work-to-rule which in essence, will see the teachers within the public education system doing no more than the minimum work they are contractually obligated to do. As such, Lyte insisted that teachers will be expected to “work the required hours as well as doing required tasks and not work beyond and carry extra duties.” He also revealed yesterday that “we will use the non-academic norms to ensure that our teachers are working under the required conditions.”
And the industrial action is likely to continue indefinitely until such time that teachers are afforded their debunching monies, according to Lyte, who however, pointed out, that the Union has not even been given a guarantee that the payment will be forthcoming following the upcoming national elections.
The Union had during the latter part of last year had discussions with A Partnership for National Unity, but according to Lyte the debunching matter was not an issue that was discussed.
Currently, the GTU has some 7,000 teachers within its membership which translates to more than two-thirds of the nation’s public school teachers. Moreover, Lyte had told this publication that an industrial action could have significant impact on the education system.
The education system is preparing to not only conduct the National Grade Two, Four and Nine Assessments, but also the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). “So it could have serious implications…” added Lyte.
A decision to institute the industrial action was one that followed on the heels of a meeting between Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, and Union executives last week Wednesday. During that forum, Lyte informed that Dr Luncheon revealed that Government is unable to honour the debunching payment, a promise that was first made 10 years ago.
“We are here to say this morning (yesterday) that we have been patient; we have been extremely patient, waiting for 10 years to have our teachers receive the long overdue debunching (monies).
For all these years we have been taken around and around, and finally to be told there is no money,” noted Lyte.
In fact, he related that Dr Luncheon revealed that absolutely no money was ever budgeted for the payment of debunching monies.
The debunching payment is intended to cater to the salaries of teachers, whereby those with the same status will be paid based on their years of experience. This would ensure that a senior teacher who was trained 10 years ago will not be placed on the same salary scale as a senior master or mistress that was subsequently trained.
According to Lyte, the debunching payment is one that has been included in the multi-year agreement package for teachers along with salary increases, land for teachers, among other benefits. The most recent multi-year agreement will come to an end this year end.
And according to the GTU President, while some of the commitment in the package have not be fulfilled, among the most pressing is that of the debunching payout which is designed to benefit all teachers.
While the GTU has blamed the Ministry for this delayed payment, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand had subsequently turned the blame on the Union, but however, did nothing to address the situation despite being provided with the relevant information from the union to do so.
A task force, comprising of Ministry of Education officials and representatives of the Union, was set up to complete a document to guide the way forward. The task force completed its work in 2014 and submitted same to the Ministry and should have paved the way for teachers to start receiving their payments.
“The last thing we heard about this matter was last year when the Minister (Manickchand) ranted and raved in the public; apart from that we have heard not a single word…” Lyte told this publication. He noted yesterday, that there was complete silence on the matter until Dr Luncheon invited the Union to the recent meeting.
GTU’s Administration Field Officer, Lancelot Baptiste, yesterday said too, that the Union was hopeful that something positive would have resulted from the meeting with Dr Luncheon “although we knew that finances were closed since last year.”
“We still felt that having being called to this meeting, something positive would have been told to us…I am embarrassed to go to our members now to say that after all those years we have been told in the month of April, that nothing has been budgeted for in all those years and therefore, there is no monies put aside for you…” lamented Baptiste.
He noted that the Union is particularly troubled by the fact that Dr Luncheon, during the meeting, informed GTU members that “the union should have known that they could not receive any payments, because all the books were closed since last December…You know what he was telling us since last December? There was no intention to pay…”
According to the Union executives, they are now tasked with informing their members through the media and other means of the non-payment development and of plans for the industrial action. “Members are now going to be told by us we were being played as the little boys would say…we were being played all along,” Baptiste added.
He therefore noted that among the non-academic norms that will be fully embraced by the Union as a result of the non-payment, will include teachers insisting on delivering lessons to only the recommended class sizes. Should the class size exceed the required number Baptiste said, that teachers will be asked to report this to their Head teachers who would be expected to address such state of affairs. Added to this, he said that if teachers are not afforded proper toilet facilities or drinking water when needed, once they are not living in the vicinity of the schools, they will be expected to return home that day and not return to work. In fact, Baptiste noted that work-to-rule will allow for teachers to opt to go home if the school environment is not conducive for their operation after informing their Head teachers.
Based on the discussions between the Union and Dr. Luncheon, if the People’s Progressive Party/Civic is re-elected it is likely that the monies will be budgeted for in the Eleventh Parliament.

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