Govt. to consider GTU’s multi-year salary hike proposal

Mar 08, 2024 News

Officials of the GTU and the Ministry of Education during discussions at Ministry’s Boardroom on Thursday.

– as negotiations kick start

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana is set to examine and deliberate on the proposed multi-year agreement for hike in salaries for teachers as the long-awaited negotiations commence on Thursday.

The multi-year proposal covers a period of five years, 2019 to 2023. The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU)’s Presdient, Dr. Mark Lyte led a 13-member delegation to the negotiations with the Chief Education Officer (CEO) Saddam Hussain and his team at the Ministry’s boardroom on Thursday.

The Education Ministry had initially proposed that the agreement should cover 2024. However, the GTU was insisted that the negotiations must date back to 2019. General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta Mc Donald told Kaieteur News that the union is now even more optimistic that their proposal will be looked at. “The Government will be meeting and discussing our proposal of the multi-year agreement starting from 2019-2023. The union had proposed a 25 percent salary increase in 2019 and a 20 percent increase for 2020-2023. “What they were proposing is way different from what we have. There have been single digits and ours were a double digit figure.” According to Mc Donald, other issues on the agenda that were raised with the ministry included the 2% difference in salary for 2017 and 2018, the clothing allowance increase and the Whitley Council being paid every three years.

According to Mc Donald, the financial matters have been given priority in the discussions. “Financial matter is at the top of the list to be looked at…we will meet again on Tuesday. We look forward to fruitful engagement when we resume.”

The Ministry of Education in a statement said that it met with representatives of the GTU in the Ministry’s boardroom to continue discussions on relevant matters of interest to both parties. According to the Ministry of Education, its team was represented by the Chief Education Officer, Mr. Saddam Hussain, Deputy Chief Education Officer- AHED, Mr. Marti DeSouza, Deputy Chief Education Officer- Admin, Ms. Tiffany Harvey, the Ministry’s Human Resource Manager, Ms. Jacqueline Simon, and Mr. Kerwin Jacobs, Senior Education Officer. The Guyana Teachers’ Union was represented by GTU President Dr. Mark Lyte, GTU General Secretary, Ms. Coretta McDonald Ms. Mariska Williams, Mr. Julian Cambridge, Mr. Heathcliff Peters, Ms. Sumanta Alleyne, Mr. Collis Nicholson, Ms. Donnette D’Andrade, Mr. Rabindrauth Boodram and Mr. Colin Bynoe, along with three General Council members, Mr. Deoraj Nauth, Mr. Sergio Joseph, and Ms. Vanessa Kissoon.

During the meeting, the Ministry said the GTU and the MoE identified 27 issues to be tabled for discussion. Following this, the two teams agreed on the order in which the matters will be addressed. The first issue tabled for discussion was the establishment of a Terms of Reference for the meetings. After deliberations, it was agreed that there will not be a signed Terms of Reference, however, both parties agreed that at the end of each meeting, two representatives of each negotiation team and two witnesses will sign the minutes. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at 09:30am in the Ministry’s Boardroom.

Chief Education Officer, Deputy Chief Education Officer- Admin, Deputy Chief Education Officer- AHED, Mr. Marti DeSouza, Mr. Saddam Hussain, Ms. Tiffany Harvey

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