Deep divide as GTU accepts Govt’s 10% pay offer

Aug 22, 2024 News

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– teachers, executives flay union President for inking deal

By Anasa Williams

Kaieteur News – Despite objections from a section of its General Council as well as rank and file members, President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Dr. Mark Lyte on Wednesday morning signed a multi-year agreement with the government accepting the ten percent pay hike for teachers and a slew of other benefits none of which accorded with the demands of the union.

Among other things the agreement stipulates that teachers will receive a salary increase of 10% for 2024, 8% for 2025 and 9% for 2026. These are the same increases that were recently rejected by the union. Kaieteur News caught up with some of the union’s executive members at the Ministry of Education on Brickdam just after the pact was signed. General Secretary, Coretta McDonald and Upper Demerara Union Representative Vanessa Kissoon were opposite the building.

On approaching McDonald and Kissoon they appeared to be in disbelief of the morning’s proceedings. During an interview with this publication McDonald said that, “The GTU is at the level now where a couple of persons, have decided to hijack the union (and) to hijack the rights of our members. I remember general council was briefed on where we are sometime last week with regards to the negotiation. General council was misled let me say that and so general council bought into what they heard. When that was subsequently revealed to general council by the general secretary that this is not the position, these are our positions here is where we are in terms of our negotiations, general council at that point many of the members retracted their votes.”

She highlighted that if there is a claim that you are representing a body of people, those same people must be engaged before decisions are taken. “The general council attended a meeting on Friday last but they were never informed that they will be attending to take a vote. Instead they were informed that they would be given an update on the stage the negotiations were at “then after being tricked they were placed in a position where they have to vote.”

“Today we came to the meeting here at the Ministry of Education, hoping to continue from where we left off last week, because, remember last week we said we are not accepting and there were several conditions in that proposal that were no yet confirmed on, that we had not yet fleshed out on, and having turned up here today to hear that we are signing an agreement many of the officers…as a matter of fact most of the negotiations committee pleaded with the president that we should ask for some time look again at what we are doing before we sign on to an agreement,” she remarked.

McDonald explained that many of the members are of the opinion that the president went to the ministry on Wednesday with the intention to sign off on the agreement which she described as yet “again another trickery from the president of the Guyana Teacher’s Union to its entire membership. The president has again thrown the members under a bus and I think he feels happy about this simply because the president doesn’t have along more time in the system and I am saying it’s unfortunate that after so many years of being an outstanding union, the union is at this point.”

McDonald said the members of the GTU are a very vocal bunch and have been voicing their concerns, “so the next step of the union depends on what they want. What I can say to you the president has signed on behalf of the union, cajoled the second vice president to sign on behalf of the general secretary and that there in itself is illegal but we will take the next steps as our members so desire,” the GS stated.

Benefits

She added: “we asked for $1500 for the marking of SBA’s we got $500, we asked for 300 duty free concession we got 150, and now if we are talking about persons who care and a government that wants to see teachers live comfortable then all of those conditions that we’ve asked for we have got the minimum of those condition and I don’t see how 10% will cushion those other conditions that we have not been favourable with.”

Vanessa Kissoon told this publication that, “I feel deceived because I was not around, however I am part of the negotiation team and I am the general council representative for the Upper Demerara Branch. Now the general council meeting first of all that the president is speaking about, I was not there at that meeting nor my alternate could not have made it when we had that meeting and I made it known to the president via a whatsapp message. I am disappointed in that even in the negotiations group I have been saying to the group and to our members that we need to return to our membership before we make any decisions especially critical decisions like these that will affect the livelihoods of our teachers.”

She added that there were meetings that the president didn’t attend and it is baffling to see that the agreement was signed even though “the general secretary who was present did not agree to sign it, the deputy general secretary who was there did not agree to sign, the first vice president who in the absence of the president will have to act as president did not agree to this, the immediate past president Mr Colin Bynoe did not agree. However we had two persons signing on behalf of our teachers.” Kissoon admitted that she walked out of the meeting since the actions taken were disrespectful to teachers and she was disappointed.

Teachers disappointed

Earlier this week this publication reached out to a few teachers to get their take on the 10% the government was offering. Member of Parliament and GTU member Ronald Cox told this publication that, “The GTU was trying desperately since 2019 (that was a whole issue by itself) to finalise an agreement with the MOE (government by extension). Following the established trajectory set by the coalition coupled by other economic factors (fastest growing economy in the world) it is fair to conclude that any percentage under 15% for 2024 with an incremental increase for 2025 and 2026 will be considered unreasonable.” He stressed that, “The current measures of the government to fight the rising cost of living are meagre worsened with the great challenges of alleged discrimination and corruption. However, 10% is definitely not what the general membership is prepared to accept at this time, especially with a lesser % for 2025 and 2026!”

Sir Randy Mingo who was always vocal since the first strike told the Kaieteur News that, “Many of those benefits will not benefit all the teachers, that is the first thing and that is the greatest issue that many of us have. Just a selected few would benefit from those incentives that they are talking about. So that is why we the teachers are more interested in the higher percentage on salaries. They are talking about health checks and all of these things, we don’t want health outreaches and all those things for us to go.”

Abiding by the general council

The GTU in a statement via its Facebook Page on Wednesday said that the agreement comes after months of talks between the two sides. “The GTU wishes to thank members for their resilience, support, and commitment throughout the process.  The General Council decision reflects the members’ wishes based on the instructions given to the executives. As we move forward, the GTU remains committed to advocating for the needs of our members and assures its members and the general public that we will continue to press the employer for additional members benefits.”

Pres. Ali’s take

Meanwhile Preseiden Irfaan Ali said in a Facebook live that, “over the next three years, teachers would see a direct increase of 27 per cent to their salaries. But that is not the totality of the increase. I want to go through some aspects of the holistic agreement. In 2024, they will receive a 10 per cent increase. In 2025, they will see an eight per cent increase and in 2026, they will see a nine per cent increase.” 

He added, ““Holders of an advanced graduate diploma will receive $7,000 monthly. Holders of a certificate in education will receive $5,000 monthly. That’s a 25 per cent increase from where it was. Holder of a certificate in education management course will receive $5000 monthly based on this agreement. These teachers will benefit from this allowance for the first time in their teaching profession.”

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• agreement, GTU, Lyte, McDonald, multi year.

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