The Guyana Public Service Union today broadsided the Government of Guyana over the President’s recent direct meeting with a group of Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers on salary and non-salary issues, while still not meeting with the Guyana Teachers’ Union on salary negotiations.

In a statement, the GPSU described the President’s actions as “provocative and unlawful” and said his decision to forgo negotiations with the union and instead hold direct engagements with teachers is a complete and total violation of the Constitution and Laws of Guyana.

The union said the President’s “ill-advised approach” to ignore the union and deal directly with workers is an act of negotiation in bad faith in violation of Article 23(1) of the Trades Union Recognition Act.

The GPSU believes the move is setting the stage for an arbitrary imposition of salaries and allowances with no input from the union, which is the true representative of the nation’s teachers.

In condemning the Government’s continued ignoring of the GTU on issues concerning teachers, the GPSU called on workers and citizens, alike, to support the demands of the trade unions for the Government to return to the legally stipulated collective bargaining process.

The union said the President’s actions should be rejected.

According to the GPSU statement, the Government’s “intransigent behaviour” is rapidly tearing the delicate fabric of national unity, and sowing seeds of division in an already racially and politically fragmented country.

The Guyana Teachers Union has already rejected the meeting between the President and the group of teachers, pointing out that the selected teachers could not have been speaking and representing the interests of the more than 7000 teachers who are members of the Guyana Teachers Union.

The GTU has been pressing the Government over the past three years to begin negotiations on the multi-year agreement which covers salaries and other issues concerning teachers across the country.

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