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Remuneration negotiation… GTU, Ministry agree to complete process by August – or other course of action could follow

Jul 05, 2016 News

The Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) have agreed to bring to an end the ongoing negotiation for a new teachers’ remuneration package by August. This development was vocalised by GTU President Mr. Mark Lyte, who told this publication that a since a timeframe, within which the negotiations should have been concluded, was not stipulated at the start, constant delays on the part of the Ministry, warranted this being put in place.
“This was kind of bad, on our part. We should have held them, from the inception, to a specific timeline. But we have now set a timeline for on or before August for the completion of negotiations and they have agreed to that,” said Lyte.
However, if the Ministry fails to adhere to this agreement, the GTU President intimated, “We will have to take another course of action.” He, however, stopped short of translating “another course of action,” but went on to stress that “they (Ministry) should be able to keep their word.” When asked if the Union is prepared to rally its members for protest action, Lyte would only say, “That will be a last resort but I am sure that our members will not be opposed to that.”
He continued, “I am frustrated by the constant delays…and the teachers are frustrated too. Each time there is an added delay it looks as though we are not doing anything. But behind the scenes we are there for so many meetings and we are hoping to get through with this soon,” added Lyte.
He said that delaying the process should not have even been an issue since, “Teachers are said to be so important. They are saying one thing on one hand and then on the other hand they are not acting out what they say…this is creating some distrust.”
According to Lyte, while the governing administration seems to have good intention for workers within the public sector, “My opinion is that they don’t act fast enough to help these workers to believe that what they are saying is what they mean. They undoubtedly have good intention in their discussion but the action part of it is not forthcoming.”
“Workers are upbeat when they hear them speak but there are so many bottlenecks,” said Lyte. He said that while Government has approved things such as the debunching money, two months later and teachers are still waiting for a payout. “The teachers are becoming more and more agitated and restless; questions are being asked…and this delay in the negotiations is not helping the situation,” the GTU President argued.
The Union, according to him, was hopeful that the negotiations could have concluded earlier but the Ministry insisted that this wasn’t possible and therefore August was accepted.
Although the Union had presented its proposal to the Ministry since the latter part of last year negotiations reportedly only commenced this year.
Lyte disclosed that thus far the two sides have agreed on policy issues but, according to him, “The meat of the thing is the salary.”
The Union has asked for a 40 per cent increase across the board for teachers this year, 45 per cent next year, 50 per cent in 2018, 50 per cent in 2019 and 50 per cent in 2020 for all categories of teachers.
In order to help along the salary negotiations, Lyte said that the Union had asked the Ministry to invite a representative from the Guyana Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Finance too. This, he noted, was to ensure that the results of negotiations are not only acceptable but workable at all of the necessary levels.
Negotiations, according to Lyte, have been stalled since recent protest action at the Brickdam Secondary School. Teachers at the school engaged in industrial action to highlight the deplorable conditions.
Lyte disclosed that on the very day of the protest, the financial aspect of the negotiations was supposed to have commenced.

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