Education Ministry resumes ‘salary increase’ talks with GTU

Nov 01, 2016 News

– calls arbitrary increase “interim payment”

After stalled negotiations and what was believed to be an imposed pay hike for public school teachers, the Ministry of Education has resumed negotiation talks with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).

GTU President,
Mr. Mark Lyte

This development was recently divulged by President of the Union, Mark Lyte.
The Ministry, according to Lyte, has also explained away its decision to arbitrarily offer teachers pay increases of 10 and six per cent which were payable at the end of last month.
Lyte revealed that since the Union had not agreed to the percentages offered, the Ministry has assured that the percentage increases paid merely represented an interim payment, pending the outcome of the continued talks.
This publication was reliably informed that the talks, which were stalled reportedly with no plausible explanation offered to the Union, resumed about three weeks ago.
But Lyte is optimistic that the talks will shortly yield “a final position in order to expedite this process of moving forward very quickly and in time for the budget.”
Government had earlier this year announced that the budget should be presented by December 2016.
In order to fast track the talks, Lyte intimated that the Education Ministry and the Union have decided to put together a task force which will work towards swiftly reaching a consensus on the salary increases and other non-salary benefits for teachers, that have been proposed by the union. Once an agreement is reached, the two sides will ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The previous MOU the union had with the Ministry concluded at the end of last year.
The Union, in its current proposal to the Ministry, has asked for a 40 per cent increase for teachers, across the board, for 2016. Also proposed is a 45 per cent increase for next year (2017) and 50 per cent for the following three years (2018-2020) for all categories of teachers.
In its proposal too, the Union has taken into consideration inflation, and has made it clear that “should there be inflation higher than the percentage agreed upon, then the teachers/teacher-educators must get the benefit of the difference.”
However, when asked whether the GTU-proposed 40 per cent across the board increase for public school teachers this year would be feasible, Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, in April said, “Frankly I would like to give the teachers even more, but you know, we have teachers to deal with, we have nurses to deal with…If you begin to raise the salaries of teachers in the classroom, the nurses are going to ask ‘what about us?’”
The Ministry had issued a directive to schools countrywide – by way of memo dated September 13, 2016 and signed by Permanent Secretary, Delma Nedd – that junior level teachers be paid a 10 per cent increase and senior teachers paid six per cent.
This development had understandably disappointed the union, since Lyte had revealed that “The Education Ministry arrived at this (increase) without us being invited or told before. We just received a document that this is it…”
”The Union is not happy about the manner in which this matter is being treated, because at public forums they talk about how teachers will be paid and how they are important…Is this how you treat a professional body that started to sit with you at the negotiation table since December?” the GTU President had questioned.
In lashing out at the Ministry, the GTU President insisted that “They have not negotiated with us in good faith and that is in breach of the regulations as it relates to collective bargaining.”
Collective bargaining underscores the need for an agreement in writing between an employer and a trade union, setting forth the terms and conditions of employment or containing provisions in regard to rates of pay, hours of work, or other working conditions of employees.
”We have a lot of issues with what they have done. The Union has not agreed to receive the percentage they are offering, so we cannot agree with this kind of practice…this is an imposition without an explanation,” Lyte had stressed.
However, the action of the Ministry has seemingly been ‘swept under the rug’ with the Ministry’s ‘interim payment’ explanation. The Union, Lyte said, is hopeful that continued negotiations will be in good faith and the outcome will favour the interest of the nation’s public school teachers.

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