GTU consulting ground level members on new salary proposal ...as government starts retroactive payout

GTU consulting ground level members on new salary proposal …as government starts retroactive payout

Jan 04, 2019 News

Although it was gearing to submit a proposal to the Ministry of Education last month for a new multi-year salary package for public school teachers, the Guyana Teachers’ Union [GTU] has decided to take a new approach. Instead of merely settling for the consent of its executive members at a General Council meeting held last month, the union has also started to solicit the approval of its rank and file members as well before submitting its proposal.
“When we met at General Council, they actually decided that we first consult the ground level members across the regions on the proposal,” said GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, as he disclosed plans for a meeting in this regard to commence as early as next week.
So they [branch representatives] are going to be having meetings in the various branches and thereafter give feedback to the executives as to whether we should go ahead with submitting the proposal in its present state,” Lyte revealed.
The union is keen on shortly submitting the salary proposal for the Ministry of Education to start considering since the most recent salary agreement for the period 2016 – 2018, which was inked just last October expired at the end of last year. That proposal was submitted since in December of 2015 during the reign of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic [PPP/C] administration. Even with the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change [APNU+AFC]’s ascension to office in May of 2015, the negotiations for that proposal were left in limbo, with several initiations of industrial action by the union in retaliation. However, towards the end of last year, government had moved to submit to the union’s appeal for a living wage for its membership.
With the inking of the agreement, public school teachers last month started to receive retroactive payment agreed to by the union and the Education Ministry.

GTU President, Mark Lyte

According to Lyte, “they [government] have started to pay out the debunching lump sum and we are confident that this year, they [teachers] will receive their retroactive interim difference for 2016 and 2017.”
Additionally, Lyte said that the union is pleased that government has also started to make available to heads of department, such as senior masters and mistresses, duty free concessions for the purchase of vehicles.
“That is another plus, in spite of the hard challenges we have had during the past year,” said the GTU President, as he alluded to the struggles the union and its membership were forced to endure ahead of realising eventual fruitful outcomes.
But according to Lyte, the union will continue to press for even more [salary and non-salary benefits] for its membership this year. He said, “It is hoped that our members will continue to rally around us as they did in 2018 and because of that [members rallying around the union], we believe that we will continue to see fruitful results.”
“All is well that ended well. Even though it was hard pressed, our teachers were able to take home some additional funds, and we are very pleased for that, because obviously, we are still not satisfied with the present salary our teachers are receiving,” said Lyte.
Moreover, Lyte is optimistic that the new proposal will not suffer the same fate as the last. Even as he expressed confidence that the union will be able to negotiate for a brighter 2019 for its membership, Lyte said, “Our executives will be discussing this document with our members on the ground, and once they are comfortable with what has been proposed, we will be moving to submit it to the Ministry.”
He added, “With all the talk about oil money and the recent developments in Parliament, we figure that the parties will be willing to broker a favourable deal…because a lot of it hinges on the agreements that they are going to be making with the working class people.”