By Svetlana Marshall

The Education and Labour Ministers today warned teachers against going on strike, contending that the conditions for industrial action have not been met, and any move to withdraw their services would be deemed unlawful. 

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has been lobbying thousands of teachers to take industrial action from Monday, over the Government’s failure to address the proposed Multi-Year Agreement.

The strike is expected to begin Monday and initially continue for a period of two weeks. 

But speaking to News Source outside the National Assembly today, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said the situation is “unfortunate,” as she accused the representatives of the GTU of seeking to achieve narrow political gains. 

Minister Manickchand said, as advised by the Ministry of Labour, the conditions for conciliation and arbitration have not been met, and as such, the strike would be illegal. 

“We are going to be advising teachers that this is not a legal strike, and that they should be careful how they heed advise from people, who are going down the road of making the union into a political entity or carrying out the narrow political mandate of a person or a political party,” Minister Manickchand told reporters. 

On Tuesday, GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald told News Source that since 2020, the Union has been pushing for an across-the-board increase in salaries as part of the multi-year agreement, but to no avail. 

McDonald said after an extensive period of trying to get the Education Ministry at the negotiation, the Union was informed by the Office of the President that a Government team led by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira would facilitate discussions on the proposed agreement, which covers salary increases and non-salary issues. She said those talks never bore fruit.

McDonald said it was against that background that the GTU wrote to the Labour Ministry seeking to first initiate conciliation, and then arbitration. The Ministry never responded.

But the Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, told News Source that the Union is attempting to jump critical steps that are outlined by the Labour Laws of the country. 

“They wrote seeking first conciliation. You have to have a situation firstly, where there is a breakdown between two parties, and then you ask for conciliation. We responded to that, the Chief Labour Officer, then the last letter they wrote, seeking arbitration. I mean, how do you reach arbitration and you haven’t even had conciliation. The other point is, the Chief Labour Officer cannot impose arbitration on parties. Arbitration, the two parties, they have to agree,” Minister Hamilton explained. 

Minister Hamilton said while the talks may have been delayed, there has been no break down in talks between the Government and the Union. 

He said on those grounds, it would be illegal for the union to initiate strike action. 

“Any strike, any strike that happens is illegal because the GTU has failed to follow the procedures outlined by the law, not by Hamilton, but the Labour Laws,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the Education Minister said even as the Union was encouraging teachers to strike from Monday, its representative were on Wednesday locked in meetings with officials from the Education Ministry. The meeting, she said, was set approximately two weeks ago, to discuss a number of issues. 

Minister Manickchand said contrary to the narrative being peddled by the Union, the Education Ministry, and the Government by extension, have acted on many of the proposals put forward by the GTU. 

“Everybody has a right, perhaps even a duty, to themselves and family to call for better salaries but salaries are not the only way we can improve the lot of a particular working section. Teachers for the first time would not be going into their pockets to buy chalk and cardboard…We are making sure promotions are done more frequently, which allows teachers personal growth as well as better salaries. We are making sure teachers have opportunity for training,” the Education Minister said. 

Minister Manickchand is urging teachers to assess the situation, and improvements made within the school system, and then determine whether there are real grounds for a strike action at this time.

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