GTU, Education reps. invited to name arbitration panel Tuesday

Sep 22, 2018 News

The Ministry of Education is hoping to have its differences with the Guyana Teachers Union [GTU] resolved amicably and speedily.
This is according to information released yesterday by the Social Protection Ministry, which was called upon by the Education Ministry to intervene in the process to nominate a chairperson for the arbitration panel to negotiate a multi-year salary package for teachers.
To fast-track the process, the Social Protection Ministry in a statement said that it is has invited both the GTU and the Education Ministry to a meeting on Tuesday September 25, 2018 at its Brickdam, Georgetown Labour Department.
It is expected that at this meeting the two sides will identify their nominees to sit on the arbitration panel, which will determine the salaries and other benefits for public school teachers.
Based on an agreement signed by the two sides, the three-member panel should have seen either side selecting one member each and both agreeing on the chairperson.
The Social Protection Ministry was asked to intervene after the two parties involved had failed to agree on a single nominee to head the arbitration panel at an earlier meeting.
At that meeting, 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 two sides agreed on the TOR, the move to identify a chairperson was entirely unsuccessful.
As three possible candidates, the GTU submitted Rashleigh Jackson, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Jeffrey Thomas, a former Minister of Education, Labour and Regional Development and Dr. Aubrey Armstrong who in 1999 chaired the Arbitration Tribunal between the Guyana Public Service Union and the Government of Guyana.
However, the names submitted by the Union were all rejected by the Ministry of Education team, which included Chief Education Officer, Mr. Marcel Hutson, and Permanent Secretary, Ms. Adele Clarke. According to Lyte, the Education team did not even bother to qualify its rejection with any reason.
The nominees submitted by the Education team were Mr. Derrick Cummings, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Mr. Glendon Harris, the Human Resource Manager of the Guyana Revenue Authority. Both nominees were rejected by the Union because they are both serving members of the State.
The statement from the Social Protection Ministry yesterday followed on the heels of disclosure from the Union that government was attempting to undermine the process to select the members of the panel.
GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, had told this publication that, “We are of the firm view that government is unwilling to address the concerns of teachers as it relates to salary and other financial benefits for teachers.” He shared his belief that government has been deliberately seeking to undermine the process.
He qualified his suspicion by disclosing that based on the date of the correspondence from the Education Ministry requesting the Social Protection Ministry’s intervention in the process was in fact sent on the same date [September 14] that the concerned parties first met to name the panel.
“How is it they could have made that request to the Social Protection Ministry on that day and that meeting ended after working hours? Added to that, the meeting ended with us deciding to meet on another date to continue our discussion,” said Lyte.
The move to head to arbitration came after multiple failed attempts at conciliation. It however paved the way for the end of strike action, which had seen public school teachers across the country protesting government’s failure to give them a 40 percent increase for 2016.

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