Teachers’ salary negotiations…Task Force Chairperson scuttles first mandated weekly meeting

Nov 10, 2017 News

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Almost one week after being established to fast-track salary negotiations for public school teachers, the President David Granger-mandated Task Force has already started to experience some hiccups. This has translated to the group’s failure to convene its first official meeting scheduled for yesterday.
This publication was reliably informed that the Task Force, which consists of officials from a number of Government Ministries and the Guyana Teachers Union [GTU], following a meeting which was chaired by Minister of Education, Ms. Nicolette Henry, last week Tuesday, decided that it would host weekly meetings on Thursdays.
However, according to information reaching this publication, the meeting slated for yesterday was postponed without any explanation. The meeting was planned for the Kingston, Georgetown National Centre for Educational Research Development [NCERD] at 10:00 hours.
However, reports suggest that an email was disseminated by Chairperson of the Task Force [Mrs. Genevieve Whyte-Nedd] to the members of the Task Force Wednesday afternoon indicating that the Thursday meeting was postponed.
Reports suggest that representatives of the GTU were especially peeved with the development. However, officials of the Union were not prepared to comment on the state of affairs yesterday.
The Task Force was formulated at the behest of President Granger following a meeting he hosted with executive members of the union to appease their concerns about the non-progressive nature of the salary negotiations.
The union had threatened to agitate its 6,000-odd teacher-membership into strike action if Government had failed to engage swift action. Strike action was in fact slated for November 2 and November 3 but was cancelled after fruitful discussions between the Head of State and union executives a few days earlier.
Up to 2015, teachers were benefiting from a multi-year remuneration agreement which was inked under the PPP/C administration. That agreement expired in December 2015. The very month union representatives said that a proposal for a new agreement was presented to the Ministry of Education.
However, negotiations in that regard were stalled on multiple occasions. According to the GTU President, while the Ministry had signed off on the non-financial aspects of the proposal, the financial aspect was being stalled.
In its proposal, the union has asked for, among other things, a 40 percent across the board increase for teachers for last year; 45 percent increase for this year and 50 percent for the following three years (2018-2020) for all categories of teachers.
In the interim, Government has announced that teachers will benefit from six to eight percentage increases retroactive to January 1, 2017.
Members of the Task Force who were identified to plot the salary-negotiation way forward are Mr. Marcel Hutson, Chief Education Officer, Ministry of Education; Ms. Adele Clarke, Permanent Secretary (ag), Ministry of Education; Ms. Jacqueline Simon, Human Resource Manager, Ministry of Education; Mrs. Genevieve Whyte-Nedd, former acting Chief Education Officer; Ms. Kelly-Ann Hercules, Legal Officer, Ministry of Education; Mr. Frederick Mc Wilfred, Political Advisor, Ministry of the Presidency ; Ms. Gail Williams, Senior Personnel Officer, Ministry of the Presidency Department of Public Service; Dr. Hector Butts, Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Mr. Emil Mc Garrell, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communities; Mr. Mark Lyte, President, GTU; Ms Coretta Mc Donald A.A., General Secretary, GTU; Ms Samantha Alleyne, Treasurer, GTU, and Mr. Lancelot Baptiste A.A., Administrative Secretary, GTU.
At the meeting she chaired last week, Minister Henry furnished the members of the Task Force with background information and relevant documents and announced that the body will be chaired by Whyte-Nedd. She also urged members to be professional in their deliberations and responsibility to the nation.
The work of the Task Force commenced with the formulation of a Terms of Reference (ToR) which was expected to be completed within a week.
The outlined mandate of the Task Force is to examine outstanding problems faced by teachers and by extension the union with a view to their timely resolution.
Through its weekly statutory meetings, the Task Force is also mandated to propose a new multi-year remuneration package for a period spanning 2016-2020 that both government and the union can agree on.
Following each meeting, it was revealed that joint statements by the Chairperson of the Task Force and the President of the GTU will be shared with the public.

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