Teachers and the numbers game

Oct 14, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The teachers have been shortchanged by their union. But this was expected given the haphazard manner in which the union conducted its negotiations with the Ministry of Education.

Teachers should do the math and determine just how much better off they are now than if their union had accepted the G$700M which was first offered by the government.

This column had calculated that based on the 2018 numbers, not 2016, the G$ 700 million would have provided the 20% which the union said it would have settled for, and which excluded the interim payments which the government had paid.

The union was in a state of confusion from day one. It has never indicated publicly on what base it had calculated its original 40% offer. But it is presumed that it was on the 2016 base.

What was equally not clear was whether when it said 40% but would have settled for 20% whether that included the interim payments which were made to teachers based on what was paid to public servants. It is presumed that most teachers had expected that the 20%, which the union said it would settle for, included the interim but some teachers may have not been of this mind.

As it stands, the union for 2016 has settled for 12%, including the 10% interim, which means that the additional increase will be 2%. One third of this will have to go in taxes so the back pay will not be that much.

There is no mention of what was offered for 2017 but the teachers did receive an interim from the government just prior to appointment of the now discredited Task Force. For 2018, the teachers will receive 8%. The union has gotten a 3% higher offer here since their demand was 5%.

Interestingly, the teachers do not have an agreement which extends to 2020. They have an agreement which effectively ends on December 31, 2018. They will therefore have to begin new negotiations even before they receive their back pay.

Was this a poor agreement? Was there inept leadership on the part of the union? Teachers will have to answer those questions.

The teachers moved from a position of strength to one of weakness for no apparent reason at all. When you have your opposite number on the back foot – as the teachers did when their strike action began to bite- you drive home that advantage. You do not flounder and seek to step down. You do not scale-down your original demand when you have the upper-hand.

And this is what the union did. It prejudiced the outcome of its position by indicating that it was willing to settle for 20%. It shows that the union was wildly playing with numbers and were desperate to call off the strike.

The government would have seen that and would have realized that the teachers’ union was shilly shallying. The government knew that it had the union cornered and it took full advantage of that fact.

The union will face stern criticism over its negotiation methods. It will lose some credibility but Guyana is a country where people’s memories are short and bygones will soon be bygones. Teachers will return to their starvation wages in the classroom and each month millions will be collectively deduced from their wages in union dues.

The union blundered by being lured into negotiating percentages. Teachers should have been struggling, not for 40% or 20%, but for a ‘living’ wage.

Teachers need to go back to the drawing board and stop with the numbers game. Teachers should decide an amount which they feel should be paid for each level in the teaching profession. They should ask themselves how much should a junior teacher receive at the end of each month. That should be the ‘living’ wage or what some people call a ‘livable’ wage.

The government may not be able at the moment to satisfy a living wage. But it can agree to offer increases so that within four to five years teachers can end up with a living wage. After this, all teachers will need is an annual adjustments for inflation. No need for annual salary negotiations once a living wage is achieved.

But as it stands, teachers now have to keep demanding increases every year. And the numbers game will continue. And the teachers will continue to receive the short end of the stick which they now have and which they will take quietly.

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