Latest update January 22nd, 2025 3:14 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Appeal Court rejects State’s request to stay High Court order over remittance of GTU dues

Jan 22, 2025 News

Kaieteur News –  The Court of Appeal, on Tuesday, rejected the State’s application to stay an order by Justice Sandil Kissoon which mandated them to continue deductions and remittance of the Guyana Teachers’ Union’s (GTU) dues.

The State had made an application to stay Justice Kissoon’s order which mandated the continuation of deductions of union dues and their remittance to the GTU.

On Tuesday, Justice of Appeal Dawn Gregory highlighted that the GTU would suffer undue prejudice if the stay were granted, stating that the balance of justice lies in favour of the Union.

Justice Kissoon initially granted an interim conservatory order on February 22, 2024. This order restrained the Government of Guyana from ceasing the deduction of union dues from the wages and salaries of GTU members and required their remittance to the Union due to a strike.

The judge made the orders at the first hearing of the case, filed by the GTU, to challenge the Government’s decision to deduct pay from the salaries of striking teachers and also blocking the administration from moving ahead with a decision to discontinue the deduction of union dues until the determination of the full case the GTU brought against the government.

The order was made absolute by the same Judge on April 17, 2024, when the Court delivered its ruling. However, despite these clear judicial directives last April, the State failed to deduct and remit the union dues as instructed.

The High Court was notified of the State’s failure to remit teachers’ dues to GTU despite a court order instructing the Ministry of Education to maintain the status quo.

Back then, President of the GTU, Dr. Mark Lyte, during a livestream broadcast via the GTU’s Facebook page disclosed that there is a breach of the Court order on the part of the Ministry of Education. The GTU President explained that the agency has not been remitting dues despite a conservatory order that is in place.

As a result, the GTU President said he hopes that the officers responsible for defying the order face the consequences for doing so.

“I hope the Judge takes a firm stance on this because as a government you have the responsibility to uphold the law. What the Judge has asked is that they let the status quo remain the same and so, somebody has got to answer for contempt of Court for no dues being remitted in any region in Guyana for the months of March and February, despite the court order,” Lyte said.

In response to the ruling, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) in a statement made an indication that justice has been served.

The PNCR noted that the blatant disregard of the law in full public view demonstrated by the PPP/C is simply saying that the PPP/C believes that they are the law or that they are above the law, which is contrary to how democratic governments operate.

The Party called for the act not be taken lightly. “The PNCR, therefore, joins with all law-respecting Guyanese locally and abroad to congratulate again the Guyana Teachers’ Union, its membership and legal team on a victory that is well deserved, and a significant milestone for Labour.”

The PNCR said too that, “We must note too that despite the clear judicial directives, the PPP/C Government has continued to ignore the order, thus refusing to reinstate the deduction and remittance of the dues to the Union.”

(Appeal Court rejects State’s request to stay High Court order over remittance of GTU dues)

 

Similar Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 21st, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

COME MAKE YOUR CASE: CWI president Shallow urges BCA, GCB to use special meeting to voice concerns as decision on governance reform inevitable

COME MAKE YOUR CASE: CWI president Shallow urges BCA, GCB to use...

Jan 22, 2025

SportsMax – Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow has emphasized that a special meeting scheduled for next month represents a critical opportunity for the Barbados Cricket...
Read More
CANOC President calls for Caribbean boxing officials to ‘take action’

CANOC President calls for Caribbean boxing...

Jan 22, 2025

New West Cricket Club of Canada to tour Guyana for three matches

New West Cricket Club of Canada to tour Guyana...

Jan 22, 2025

Chung cops Gold as National Indoor Recurve Archery Open 

Chung cops Gold as National Indoor Recurve...

Jan 22, 2025

Guyana Junior hockey teams to contest PAHF Jr Challenge in Barbados

Guyana Junior hockey teams to contest PAHF Jr...

Jan 22, 2025

Play in the BCB/Dr Amarnauth Dukhi U15 One-Day two innings Inter club competition continues

Play in the BCB/Dr Amarnauth Dukhi U15 One-Day...

Jan 22, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]