In January of this year, the Government made a decision that the Ministry of Education would only engage in negotiations with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on a fresh multi-year agreement, starting 2024, according to the Chief Education Officer (CEO), Saddam Hussain.

He made that revelation today while he was being cross-examined for a third consecutive day, in the case brought against the Government by the GTU over the issue of collective bargaining. 

Under questioning by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who is representing the Guyana Trades Union Congress in the matter, the Chief Education Officer said while the decision was taken in January, it was not until March 7, 2024, that position was made public. 

It was submitted by the Senior Counsel, and agreed by Hussain, that the Government’s position was communicated to the public by him in a press statement on the night of March 7, 2024, three hours after the Ministry of the Education had published a statement indicating that the two sides had met the very day, and that salary matters included in the Union’s multi-year proposal would be among issues to be discussed during their next meeting on March 12, 2024. 

The March 7 meeting was the first meeting that stemmed from the agreement reached between the Union and the Education Ministry on March 4 during the Court-ordered mediation process.

As he continued to grill the Chief Education Officer, Senior Counsel Forde turned the Court’s attention to the 41 items that the Government said the Union had proposed, of which some 30 items were reportedly acted upon.  

After questioning Hussain on each item, Senior Counsel Forde submitted to the Court that of the 41 items listed, 14 of them were imposed unilaterally by the Government and did not reflect the proposals made by the Union in its multi-year agreement; nine of them were acted upon in accordance with the Union’s request, and another nine had not been acted upon, while one, was being worked out. 

Zooming in on the nine items that were acted upon in accordance’s with the Union’s request, the Senior Counsel submitted to the Chief Education Officer that they were only acted upon between November and December 2023 and that there was no agreement signed between the two sides, or formal communication made with the Union, indicating that the nine items were being implemented. 

In response, Hussain told the Court that he could not recall the period of implementation but agreed that there was no agreement or formal communication on the implementation of the nine items. 

He said it was his understanding that an agreement would only be signed upon the conclusion of the negotiation on the proposed multi-year-agreement. 

Throughout his three days of testimony, Hussain did not point the Court to any document that would confirm that negotiations started and ended on specified days, before the decision was taken to only negotiate a new multi-year agreement, starting 2024. 

Outside the Court room, Senior Counsel Forde told reporters that the cross-examination proved that the Government did not engage the Union on Collective Bargaining. 

“The cross-examinations today and yesterday were intended to decimate the Government’s propositions that firstly, that they had engaged in collective bargaining; secondly, it was the intention to establish that the Chief Labour Officer and the Ministry of Labour was complicit to ensure that a scheme was fabricated to deny the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the workers and members, the right to conciliation, and the right to collective bargaining. We also wanted to establish that throughout this process, it was the government that was acting repeatedly in bad faith,” Forde said. 

The case has been adjourned to April 10, when it is expected that attorneys from both sides will make their oral submissions.

The Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, the respondent in the matter, is representing the State, along with a battery of lawyers, including King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhani. 

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