By Svetlana Marshall

The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has applied to the High Court to join the case brought against the Government of Guyana by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) over the Administration’s plan to cut the salaries of teachers for engaging in industrial action, and halt the deduction of union dues.

At a press conference today at the Critchlow Labour College, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis disclosed that the application was filed on Friday. 

He said as a Federated body, it is important for the GTUC to represent its affiliate on matters of national importance, adding that the GTUC is prepared to argue in Court that teachers’ right to collective bargaining is protected in the International Labour Convention, the Constitution and the Laws of Guyana. 

“I wish to say to our nation’s teachers that you are not alone. We stand with you. We are proud of you. For today you are leading this nation in the spirit and will of your ancestors. You are walking along a pathway that they have cleared for you, to fight, using the weapons of trade unions legally against oppressors, against those who will exploit and undervalue your labour and reward you only with the crumbs from the table whilst they benefit and enjoy your energy and sweat. Your struggle is just, and legal and rightfully before the courts for adjudication,” Lewis said. 

GTUC is being represented by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde. 

Mr. Forde said with the application being filed within a reasonable time, there is no reason why the GTUC should not be allowed to be a party in the matter. He said the Union is prepared to make its submission in the public’s interest. 

“These are significant and important issues, which affect workers’ rights across the length and breadth of this country, and I believe that the Court will ultimately consider the favorable and appropriate application to grant,” the Senior Counsel said. 

He said one of those issues is that of “no work, no pay” as is being argued by the Attorney General, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall, who is the respondent in the matter. 

“In relation to what the Attorney General and the Chief Education Officer having been saying, if you strike, you don’t have an entitlement to salary. I believe that, that is a misapplication of the general principle. It is a principle that sounds fair, it sounds sensible, it sounds appropriate but each principle or each legal contention operates in context of the environment under which it is to be applied. And its application in this case we believe is very inappropriate and it would be misconceived to apply it as urged by the Attorney General. We are dealing here with a situation where the Guyana Teachers’ Union, as the principal union involved in this dispute, would have written a number of letters to the Government seeking to engage in the concept, and in the principle and in the execution of collective bargaining, that would have gone on for years, in the context of a proposed labour package for years 2019 to 2023; we are in the year 2024 and the Guyana Teachers’ Union is still seeking that plan implemented,” Forde reasoned. 

Meanwhile, GTUC President Norris Witter, as well as the union’s General Secretary, applauded the Teachers’ Union on securing an agreement with the Government to engage in Collective Bargaining after more than three years of resistance.  

The agreement was hammered out during a Court ordered mediation.  

“It took the decision of the Court, a judge in the High Court and the might of the teachers to bring the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Government to the table. They have signed to the principle that they are prepared to operate in good faith, we believe that the teacher’s union must put the Ministry of Education to the test, turn up at the table, and let us see whether they believe in the things they have signed onto,” Lewis said. 

Witter added the agreement is a victory not only for the Teachers’ Union, but for all other unions in the country. 

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