Strike threat pushes government to re-engage teachers

Aug 07, 2018 News

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Just after noon yesterday, officials of the Guyana Teachers Union [GTU] received a correspondence inviting them to a meeting with Minister of Education, Ms. Nicolette Henry. The meeting, this publication understands, is intended to inform the Union of Government’s position regarding the recommendations from a High Level Committee earlier this year which included a process of negotiations for a multi-year package concerning the salary and conditions for teachers.
About one hour before word of the invitation reached this newspaper, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, at this week’s post-Cabinet press briefing disclosed that through the Minister of Education, Government will convey its response to the Union.
“There were recommendations made by the High Level Committee and these recommendations required a response. Government at the level of Cabinet has prepared a response to those recommendations and it is the Government’s response which will be given to the Union by the Minister for further discussion,” Harmon informed yesterday.
According to Harmon, too, the Education Minister has already advised that the meeting between herself and the Union representatives will be held on Thursday.
Harmon said, yesterday, that the report of the High Level Committee was presented to Cabinet by the Minister of Education. The High Level Committee is one that consisted of government officials and representatives of the GTU, including its President, Mr. Mark Lyte, and General Secretary, Ms. Coretta McDonald.
The Minister of State said, yesterday, the Committee was appointed “to discuss the proposal of the Union for a multi-year agreement with the Government in relation to the salaries and conditions for service for teachers as well as the recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry into education.”
The Committee was also mandated to make recommendations on the matters discussed with Cabinet for its consideration.
Harmon said, “Cabinet deliberated on the report, gave its response to the recommendations and directed that the Union be re-engaged.” According to Lyte, the Union will attend the meeting to hear what Government’s response is even in spite of claims by government that the recommendations of the Committee have financial implications.
However, the move to offer a response is quite timely as the Union was gearing to retaliate to the perceived inaction by Government by the start of the new school year next month. Public schools are currently benefitting from a two-month [July/August] holiday break.
Just last month Lyte said, “If we see nothing happening when school is about to re-open, the Union will probably be mandated by its members to take some form of action.”
The executive of the Union had informed that even after a response from President David Granger, it was no closer to knowing when an agreement will be inked to facilitate the processing of the multi-year package for public school teachers.
This publication had reported that the response from the Head of State came on the heels of two letters forwarded to him from the GTU on the very matter.
An initial letter to the Head of State was written by the GTU General Secretary and a subsequent one was sent by the Union’s President.
Both letters sought to enquire from the Head of State about the reason[s] for the delayed agreement for teacher and also queried about a timeline for its realisation.
“The Union wrote the President twice pertaining to the outstanding matter. He responded by saying the Ministry will be informing us of the outcome but did not state any specific timeline which is what I think is the problem…our membership need to know how much longer they have to wait,” Lyte had complained.
He continued, “That is something that is of concern to us, we need to be able to relate to our members as to what time we will be expecting to see or hear something specific.”
At the end of 2015, a previous multi-year agreement inked between the former government and the GTU came to an end. As a result, the Union presented a proposal for a new multi-year agreement to the current government.
Entailed in the proposal were, among other things, a 40 percent across the board increase for teachers for 2016; 45 percent increase for last year and 50 percent for this year and the following two years (2019-2020) for all categories of teachers.
“We highlighted clearly to the President how long teachers have been waiting,” said Lyte as he alluded to the dissatisfaction of its membership with regards to the slothful manner in which the matter is being handled.
Even as he made reference to recent protest action by a faction of the GTU membership, Lyte said. “They felt that enough was not being done and they took action so in the last week of school, they began to protest.”
“That is an indication of the direction the membership will be directed to, should there be a continued delayed in the signing of a satisfactory agreement and in a timely fashion,” Lyte had intimated.

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