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As strike action looms… Education Ministry appeals to Social Protection Ministry for conciliation – GTU says not in receipt of any invite; insists conciliation not possible now
Education Minister, Ms. Nicolette Henry.
In recognition of the fact that the planned strike action by public school teachers could have “highly negative and far reaching implications”, the Ministry of Education has reached out to the Ministry of Social Protection to intervene.
This publication was privy to a letter signed by Minister of Education, Ms. Nicolette Henry, and addressed to the Ministers of Social Protection – Ms. Amna Ally and Mr. Keith Scott – requesting that the Social Protection Ministry exercise its conciliation powers in the matter.
The letter states in part, “In accordance with the Act referred [Section 4 of the Labour Act Cap 98:01]…the Ministry hereby applies for your Ministry’s conciliatory service in the ongoing dispute.”
The Minister premised her request on the fact that based on media reports, the Guyana Teachers’ Union [GTU] is embarking on strike action with effect from Monday August 27, 2018, a move that could negatively impact the public school system.
The union has shared that from next week teachers will engage strike action by staying away from school during pre-term activities. The strike action will continue into the next week during the first week of the new school year.
Given the impact that such strike action could have on the public school system, the Minister has premised her request for conciliation on the fact that the Labour Ministry is vested with legislative authority to intervene in dispute cases which have the potential of being “gravely injurious to the national interest…”
According to the Minister in her missive, “We shall be grateful for your earliest attention to this request, given that seven days for the initiation and institution of this application is to be made within seven days after stage one [i.e. negotiations] would have failed. By way of reminder, the last meeting between the two parties was held on August, 16, 2018.”
At recent meetings on August 9 and 16, the Ministry of Social Protection was represented. Those meetings saw the Minister of Education relating to the union, government’s position regarding a multi-year agreement for public school teachers. The government, the Minister has made clear, was prepared to move forward with several non-financial benefits proposed by the union, but was not in agreement in the majority of those financial.
It was in light of the position taken by government that the union, based on the demands of its membership, decided to announce the strike plan.
In evident response to the Education Ministry’s request yesterday, the Social Protection Ministry by way of a statement disseminated to the media said that “…the Ministry of Education, acting in conformity with the provisions of an extant Collective Labour Agreement, applied for conciliatory services in the current Salaries and Benefits negotiations between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and itself (Ministry of Education).”
The Ministry of Social Protection further revealed that it has agreed to provide the conciliatory services and has accordingly invited the two parties to a meeting scheduled for 14:00 hours today [Friday August 24, 2018] at the Ministry’s Board Room at Lot 82 Brickdam Georgetown, Guyana.
When contacted to comment on the latest development, a union representative said that not only was the union not in receipt of an invitation from the Social Protection Ministry up to closing time yesterday, but that conciliation is not even possible at this point.
“We cannot have conciliation now, since at both meetings [with the Education Ministry] Labour was present,” the union representative said. It was further explained that “the negotiation in the first place should have been between the union and the [Education] Ministry, and when that failed, then Labour should have been called in.”
The union representative reiterated the union’s position by highlighting, “we have passed conciliation stage, because when Labour is invited, that is when conciliation should take place…They were already involved in those meetings, so we can’t go back to conciliation at this point; we simply cannot go back to conciliation now,” the union representative asserted.
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