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GTU ready to go to arbitration over stalled salary talks – Dr. Lyte
Kaieteur News – The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on Friday said that it is ready to go to arbitration over stalled salary talks with the Ministry of Education. This was disclosed by the Union’s President, Dr. Mark Lyte during a press conference held on Friday at the Union’s Headquarters on Woolford Avenue.
President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Dr. Mark Lyte
Dr. Lyte was asked by the media to tell them the extent of the Union’s scope to pursue the grievance procedure; given that the government has refused to discuss the timeframe they requested the collective bargaining agreement.
“While the Union is ready and willing to submit itself to arbitration, we do not know whether the government is prepared to go in that direction, because that process will allow for a neutral person to be selected and agreed on by both parties, who will decide on whether there is any ground for teachers to be given an increase salary and how much,” the GTU president said.
Further, Dr. Lyte said that “Conciliation could have happened”. He reminded that the GTU wrote the Chief Labour Officer and copied the Minister of Labour “and all we got was a correspondence saying, there was no need for conciliation”.
“So I am not sure whether the Ministry is prepared to go that way and government I should say. But we are ready not to go to conciliation, we are ready to go to arbitration,” he added.
The GTU head said that the Union has shared its grievance memorandum with the public and there are steps to be taken to move from conciliation to arbitration.
“The issue with conciliation is where we allow the Ministry of Labour through the Chief Labour Officer to bring the two parties together to see what the issue is. We have seen no movement on the part of the Ministry of Labour through its Chief Labour Officer to bring some level of conciliation.”
Dr. Lyte explained that the Union is far past the conciliation stage. “Our memorandum also speaks to arbitration but included in the memorandum is the fact that both parties would have to agree on to arbitrator and that there is a need for arbitration.”
Confidently, Dr. Lyte assured reporters that the Union has the support of its teachers. “Verbal reports suggest 60% of teachers were on strike on Thursday.”
On Friday, the numbers received were reportedly higher and continued support is expected in new week when teachers take to the streets. “In the new week, we will have the strike accompanied by protest action. We will be very strategic this time around to ensure that there is proper balance between the strike effort and the protest,” the GTU leader said.
Kaieteur News reported that the teachers will resume protests next week in what has been described by Dr. Lyte as a “strategic strike”. Teachers’ resumed strike action on Thursday albeit not in the form of protests.
“There is no protest today (Thursday). The strike begins today but teachers will be staying away from work today and tomorrow,” Dr. Lyte said adding that “Come next week, we may very well have to take to the streets, because as you know, a strike can be accompanied by a protest. Next week, some days there will be protests and it will be countrywide. This time around we have to be more strategic with it,” Dr. Lyte told Kaieteur News on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the GTU announced its intended strike while disclosing that it has informed both the Ministries of Education and Labour, via letter, of its intention to resume strike action.
During a virtual press conference, Dr. Lyte said that since the 29-day strike held in February, the Union was unable to have discussions with the government on the multi-year proposals for increases in salaries. It was reported that the multi-year proposal covers a period of five years, 2019 to 2023. The Union had proposed a 25 percent salary increase in 2019 and a 20 percent increase for 2020-2023.
- arbitration, GTU, Lyte, protest, strike
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