With concerns that teachers could be struck off the pay sheet if they fail to resume duty on the last day of the current academic school term, and report for work on the first day of the new school term in September, Executives of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) are consulting with teachers across the country on the next steps to be taken, as the teachers continue with their strike action.

In a virtual meeting with hundreds of teachers from the County of Demerara last night, GTU Vice President, Collis Nicholson said with the Union and the Ministry of Education currently at a deadlock over a wage package for teachers, the GTU with the backing of its members, must decide on the way forward as the August School Term comes to an end, to prevent teachers from being struck off the “pay sheet”. 

He said the Union has been bending over backwards in the spirit of compromise to reach an amicable solution to the standoff, but he noted that the Government continues to stick to its position while ignoring the various positions of the GTU.

The GTU Vice President said with the Education Ministry showing no indication of any willingness to strike a compromise, the union must decide on the way forward to safeguard the livelihood of its teachers. 

“First, we had a 20% interim payment and that was taken out when the document was forwarded. It was sent back to us without that. Then we placed a $150,000 cash grant in the document, that too was taken out. So, like I said in my initial remarks, the Ministry has no interest in paying any form of renumeration at the resumption of work to teachers. That leaves us with us having continued industrial action, but at the same time, if we do not return to work on the last day, and the precedence would have already been set, that if you are not there on the last or the first day, that your names, most times, are taken off the paysheet, and most times, your pay is withheld,” Nicholson explained. 

He said once a teacher’s name is taken off of the pay sheet in July, it usually takes a minimum of three months to have the name returned to the pay sheet so that they could be paid their salaries.

Nicholson said cognizant of the implications of not being present at school on the last day of the academic school term, the Executive of the Union, was seeking their guidance, just as it did before taking industrial action in February, over government’s repeatedly failure to engage in Collective Bargaining. 

“As the Executive Members, we don’t want to make any sort of decision unilaterally but when the Union would have called for us to have this industrial action, it was a call from the general membership of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, and therefore if any decision is to be made, going forward, it has to be with the blessings of the general membership of the Union,” he said. 

Weighing in on the issue, one teacher commented that it would appear that the Union has found itself “between a rock and a hard place,” and opined that the striking teachers should simply turn up for work on the last day of the August School Term and the first day of the Christmas School Term to have their names registered in the system. 

But another educator questioned whether teachers can simply show up for duty without arriving an any formal agreement or without any formal documentation. 

Nicholson said he too was confronted with the same questions, and arrived at the conclusion that it would only be fitting for the union to sign on to Terms of Resumption before teachers resume duty, should they return. 

“We have to decide as teachers of this union, whether we are going to forgo something tangible, meaning renumeration in going back to work, and now resumption with the conciliation process being 21 days and if the conciliation process fails then within 14 days, we have arbitration but that is a decision we would have to make,” he said. 

Should teachers agree to that position, it would mean that they would have to return to work without the issuance of any interim payment. 

Nicholson made it clear, however, the strike continues, and any decision on the way forward, would have to be made with the full backing of the members of the Union. 

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