Minister has no legal authority to appoint chair in voluntary arbitration – GTUC- says apology should be issued to Dr. Leyland Lucas for attempting to besmirch his image

Sep 27, 2018 News

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The Guyana Trade Union Congress [GTUC] yesterday accused Minister Keith Scott of “bullyism” for what it claims is his unilateral appointment of the chairperson for the arbitration panel to negotiate a salary increase for public school teachers.
It said that such a move from the Social Protection Minister, who holds responsibility for Labour issues, is not unexpected.
“Minister Keith Scott continues to pose embarrassment to this nation and threaten the realising of a stable industrial relations environment,” the TUC stated in a release yesterday.
According to the GTUC, Minister Scott’s appointment of University of Guyana lecturer, Dr. Leyland Lucas, as Chairman of the Arbitration Panel has no basis in the Laws of Guyana.
“Unless such law – which the Minister must produce – was passed in the dead of night and assented to before the nation awakes, the trade union community knows not of its existence,” the GTUC asserted.”
This is in light of the fact that the arbitration proceedings between the GTU and the Education Ministry are “voluntary,” since there exists an agreement between the two parties to move into arbitrational arrangement and where the decisions will be binding on both.
According to the GTUC, what Minister Scott is seeking to do is disregard the time-honoured good faith practice, agreed, written and signed to by the GTU and the Education Ministry on September 6, 2018.
The extant agreement expressly states, “A chairperson [be] agreed to by the employer and the GTU.” The 1990 GTU and Education Ministry’s Memorandum of Understanding stipulated that where there isn’t agreement between the parties on an arbitration chair, the Ministry of Labour will be asked to “nominate” one. But a nomination, the GTUC clarified, is not tantamount to an appointment and added, “The difference the Minister must recognise and respect.”
That 1990 Agreement, the result of Collective arbitration is of a voluntary nature and encompasses the facility of giving and taking at the table, consequently the person nominated will have to be considered and agreed to by the parties.
But the GTUC noted, “Seemingly Minister Scott has not read that Agreement, the 6th September 2018 Terms of Resumption, Avoidance and Settlement of Dispute Agreement, and/or the Labour Act. Or he doesn’t care or understand the documents/instruments and the rudiments of Collective Bargaining.”
According to the GTUC, in the workplace no rank and file worker would have been allowed to keep his/her job operating “at such a level of high incompetence.”
But Scott is insisting that he has been operating within the confines of the law. Moreover, the Minister has voiced his concern about what he has described as “some of the inaccuracies, misconceptions and deliberate attempts to distort the facts pertaining to the conclusion of the process to establish the Arbitration Tribunal to determine the current Teachers’ Salaries issues.”
According to Scott, following a meeting Tuesday with the representatives of the union and the Education Ministry, to identify their individual nominee, “a number of misleading statements and submissions which seem to be founded on emotions rather than facts appeared in the printed Media.”
In an attempt to bring clarity, Scott yesterday called upon interested parties to study the relevant Collective Labour Agreement [CLA] subsisting between the Parties. He advised further that it would be useful also to consult the Labour Act, Chapter 98:01 for an understanding of the role of the Minister responsible for Labour and that of the Chief Labour Officer as well as the Constitution for general knowledge.
Scott admitted that since the parties had failed to agree on a Chairman at a previous meeting, it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour in the interest of industrial stability to nominate and not appoint a Chairman.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Scott presented Professor Leyland Lucas to the concerned parties as his appointee to chair the arbitration panel and even asserted yesterday that since he does not reside in Guyana “his neutrality, professionalism and objectivity can be assured.”
In slamming the Minister’s reasoning, the GTUC said, “Minister Scott continues to act in bad faith, further sullying the industrial relations environment. His mis-application of Section 4 of the Labour Act, Chp. 98:01, which stipulates a ministerial role in Compulsory Arbitration has no bearing on the GTU and Education Ministry’s case for both parties have consented under the Collective Bargaining process to proceed to Arbitration.”
“Incidentally, Minister Scott refuses to apply this said law, as was applied by PPP/C Minister of Labour Nanda Gopaul, in effort to resolve the nine-year old grievances affecting workers at the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI). In this particular instance he continues to feign ignorance and claim impotency to act,” the GTUC added.
Further, the GTUC stated that there is a stark difference between Compulsory Arbitration and Voluntary Arbitration, even as it viewed the Minister’s action as an attempt to deceive and at the same time besmirch Dr. Lucas’ image, via association in an illegal act.
Calling the actions of the Minister “disconcerting”, the GTUC stated that in Voluntary Arbitration a Chair can only be appointed after agreement between the parties. As such it noted that the Minister must respect and stop interjecting himself where he has no authority.
“Given the tendency to recklessly act/speak and act contrite thereafter, GTUC thinks Minister Scott should publicly apologise to Dr. Lucas for the international embarrassment he has inflicted on him,” the GTUC cautioned.
“The Minister’s recent act continues a pattern of speaking and acting without regard for or with guidance of the rules, laws and precedence and being mindful of his role in the industrial relations environment. Tuesday’s indecent further reinforces the GTU’s concern, and by extension Labour, about the Minister’s competencies in dealing with the issue of negotiating salary and working conditions for teachers.”
“When he is not taking side with the employer, abrogating his duty to be an honest and credible broker, he is insulting teachers by calling them names, and now claiming authority to inflict an act under some phantom law.”
The GTUC highlighted that “Collective Bargaining, where trade unions exist, is a right under Article 147 of the Guyana Constitution.”
“This right was fought for and secured with the workers’ lives, blood, sweat and tears. That it is so enshrined no employer has the right to disregard it. More so, Government as custodian of the nation’s Laws should be setting the tone by ensuring its protection. Developing and fostering adversarial relations with citizens/workers will undermine any government legitimacy to govern,” the GTUC further emphasized.
The trade union body appealed to the APNU+AFC Government to cease the practice of treating with matters relating to workers and their unions in bad faith. It went on to note that the absence of understanding industrial relations practices and the seeming comfort to operate in a sea of ignorance can bring dire consequences for the upholding of the Rule of Law, fostering harmonious employer/workers relations, ensuring productivity and social cohesion.
“These are commitments the coalition government campaigned on. Every worker-past, present and potential- must therefore hold government accountable to deliver on,” the GTUC reminded.

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