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Debunching payment…Teachers’ Union convinced government taking it for a ride
“Just say exactly what is happening and let’s move on from there.” This is the appeal being made by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) to Government in light of a protracted delay of payment of debunching monies.
Ms Coretta McDonald
The debunching money was part of an agreement that the GTU had with the previous administration.
Since teachers are paid based on their qualifications, this means that a teacher who has just entered the system is paid the same salary of another that has been in the system for 10 years. With the debunching payment, it is expected that teachers will be eligible for payment based on their years of service.
The payment which was outstanding for a number of years was assured by the previous administration but was denied during the run-up to the 2015 elections.
Before and upon entering office, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change Government had committed to the agreement the GTU had with its predecessor. To date there has been no payment.
Speaking to this publication recently GTU General Secretary, Ms. Coretta McDonald, said, “There has been no new development on the way forward with regards to the debunching payment and I am not even sure there is going to be a way forward.”
GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, had explained last year that “the Union and the Ministry [of Education] agreed to have the debunching payout of one per cent of all teachers’ salaries beginning from 2011 to 2015…this means that for each month they will get one per cent of whatever salary they are receiving in that year.”
But according to McDonald, “We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. This payment is for a number of years and not payment…this is 2017. These monies are payable to all the teachers in the public education system which amounts to in excess of 13,000 teachers.”
“I am not sure where the government is going to find that kind of money to pay,” considered the GTU General Secretary as she pointed out that “the issue that we have at the GTU is, we have been submitting this document on debunching; we have been redefining and redefining this document to make this document as perfectly refined a document that we want it to be and this is not just the GTU’s doing. But we have been working with officers of the Ministry of Education.”
McDonald pointed out that in trying to refine the debunching document, efforts have been made to “cut back here and cut there and cut so…all sorts of cutting would have been done.”
But the issue, according to the GTU General Secretary, is that although it has been recognised that Government may not be able to pay the amount owed, “at least in all fairness to us we expected that somebody would say to us ‘look GTU, look partner, here is where we are at…We can’t reach there, we don’t have it, but we can offer ‘A or B’…let’s work around this; let’s talk around this.’ But nobody is saying anything to us!”
An evidently upset McDonald said that “all that we are getting is ‘okay it is at Cabinet; we are waiting for Cabinet’s decision; okay Cabinet asked us to furnish them with some more information; oh Cabinet asked us to do this; oh Cabinet resent the documents and we are doing some more adjustments’…”
The whole situation, according to McDonald, is tantamount to “eye pass…It has really been an ‘eye pass’ and persons have really been taking us for granted with regards to this debunching issue.”
“We are saying that as major stakeholders in this business of education we are up for discussion, we are here to sit and look at what is there, look at what is realistic and to have it happen,” related McDonald. According to the GTU General Secretary, the Union will prefer realistic action rather than empty promises.
“We don’t need promises that we will get it tomorrow, next week, next month or next year… stop taking us for a ride because we are not going to accept it any longer from you,” added McDonald.
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