'GTU’s multi-year proposal must start from 2024'- Chief Education Officer says

‘GTU’s multi-year proposal must start from 2024’- Chief Education Officer says

Mar 09, 2024 News

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

…as discussions between sides to continue next week

Kaieteur News – Chief Education Officer (CEO) Saddam Hussain is maintaining that the Ministry of Education’s position on the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) multi-year agreement has not changed adding that “any multi-year agreement must start from the year 2024, not retroactively.”

Chief Education Officer (CEO), Saddam Hussain

Hussain in a statement issued on Thursday night following media reports denied that the Ministry has agreed to the GTU’s proposal for the period 2019-2023. He said the articles “convey the false impression that the Government of Guyana has agreed there shall be a multi-year agreement, 2019-2023. This is a matter proposed by the Union that will be discussed.”

Kaieteur News reported that, 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 commenced on Thursday.

The multi-year proposal covers a period of five years, 2019 to 2023. The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU)’s President, 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.

Minutes signed by attendees from both the Ministry of Education and the GTU on the discussions said that “the salary matters included in the multi-year proposal 2019-2023” and discussions on the 2 percent difference in salary from 2017 and 2018, clothing allowance and the Whitley Council being paid every three years, are to take place on Tuesday March 12, 2024 at 09:30h.

Notwithstanding the Ministry of Education’s proposal that the agreement should cover only 2024, the GTU has insisted that negotiations must be dated 2019.

General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta McDonald 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,” the Union representative said.

McDonald explained that 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 a fruitful engagement when we resume,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education in a statement said that it met with representatives of the GTU in the Ministry’s boardroom on Thursday 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. Rabindranauth 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 is 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.

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