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Teachers’ multi-year salary package…Social Protection Ministry asked to intervene in naming chair of arbitration panel

Sep 18, 2018 News

Having failed to agree on a nominee to chair the Arbitration Tribunal to negotiate a multi-year salary package for public school teachers, the Ministry of Education has decided to seek intervention.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Social Protection’s Labour Department, it was revealed that the Education Ministry has sought the intervention of the Social Protection Ministry to nominate the chairperson.
This move, it was noted, is in keeping with the Terms of Resumption agreed to by the Education Ministry and the Guyana Teachers Union on Thursday, September 6, 2018.
“The parties met on Friday, September 14, 2018 and held discussions, which were intended to mutually determine a Chairman to a Panel of Arbitrations to address the cause of a strike which started on September 27, 2018,” the Social Protection Ministry said. “The parties failed to agree on a common Chairman…(and) in keeping with the provisions of the extant Collective Labour Agreement between themselves, the Ministry of Education sought the intervention of the Ministry of Social Protection to nominate the Chairman.”
In accepting the Education Ministry’s request for its intervention, the Social Protection Ministry said that it has since written to President of the Union indicating its acceptance of the Ministry of Education’s request. It was revealed, too, that the Union was advised that it would be informed of future development(s) on the matter in due course.
However, GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, said that up to last evening, he was not aware that the Social Protection Ministry was asked to intervene in naming the chairperson.
Last week Friday, the union and the Education Ministry met to finalise Terms of Reference [tor] for the arbitration process and decide on a nominee to chair the panel.
While the meeting saw the two sides agreeing on the TOR, the move to identify a chairperson was entirely unsuccessful.
Both parties were expected to agree on the chairperson; each side was entitled to submit the name of one member to the three-member panel. But the parties did not even reach to the point of naming their respective member on Friday as they were unable to agree on the name of the chairperson.
The GTU submitted the names of three possible candidates including Rashleigh Jackson, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Aubrey Armstrong who in 1999 chaired the Arbitration Tribunal between the Guyana Public Service Union and Federated Union of Government Employees and the Government of Guyana and Mr. Jeffrey Thomas, a former Minister of Education, Labour and Regional Development.
But the names of these individuals who have been described by the union as “persons of integrity, wealth of experiences and record of proven competencies which is crucial and necessary for the arbitration panel” were all rejected by the Ministry of Education’s team.
According to Lyte, those representing the Education Ministry, including Chief Education Officer, Mr. Marcel Hutson, and Permanent Secretary, Ms. Adele Clarke, did not even qualify their rejection with any reason.
They did, however, submit the names of two possible candidates to chair the arbitration panel. The names of Mr. Derrick Cummings, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Mr. Glendon Harris, the Human Resource Manager of the Guyana Revenue Authority were brought to the table by the Education officials.
According to Lyte, the union was forced to reject these names for the simple reason that “These are both serving members of the State.”

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