President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte is confident that the GTU will be able to secure a “substantial package” for teachers when it meets with the Ministry of Education on its proposed multi-year agreement.
The talks are expected to begin within 48 hours of the resumption of work by teachers, who are scheduled to return to their classrooms by Wednesday, March 6. The teachers were on strike for the past four weeks.
The GTU called off the strike on Monday, after an agreement was reached with the Ministry of Education, during a Court ordered mediation.
Under the pact, the two sides have agreed to consider, among other things, financial matters during their upcoming meetings. In an interview this morning on 94.1FM, the GTU President said with the backing of the Court mediation, he believes the Government will have to act.
“I want to assure all of our teachers, whether they are financial members or not of the teachers’ union that we have laid it out very clear, that these discussions will focus on the financial aspect, and that we will aggressively pursue a conclusion, a swift conclusion on these negotiations, and our teachers would not be disappointed at the end of the day. We assure them that as we have been fighting so hard for them is that we would not renege on our responsibility to ensure that the package coming their way is something substantial that would improve their livelihood and living condition,” Lyte said.
As part of the union’s proposed multi-year agreement, which covers the period 2019-2023, the GTU is hoping to secure a 25% across the board salary increase for teachers for 2019, and a 20% increase for each of the remaining years.
Lyte said since 2020, GTU has been trying to engage the Ministry of Education, and by extension the Government on the proposed agreement, and while there was movement on a number of non-salary matters, there was no movement on the part of Government to engage in Collective Bargaining.
He said it was government’s failure to address the substantive issue of salary, that resulted in the nationwide protest. And though it took an intervention by High Court Judge, Sandil Kissoon to bring the two sides together in the form of mediation, he is hopeful that with an agreement in place, there will be moves to offer teachers a reasonable increase.
However, Lyte said he was surprised that it took an order by the Court to get the Government to agree to a meeting with the Union to discuss financial matters, when critical hours of learning were being lost due to the nationwide strike.
“I am very surprise as a citizen and the leader of one of the most vibrant trade unions in Guyana that it took this long, and it had to be that the judge of the High Court stepping in to order mediation. I was surprise that good sense didn’t prevail earlier, because what was at stake were our children who were not being taught in school because teachers were not there, and the government ignored [that],” Lyte said.
The Government has argued that the two sides were also engaged, but Lyte maintained that those meetings dealt strictly with policy issues.
Meanwhile, the issues relating to the threat by Government to cut the salaries of those teachers who were on strike, and the discontinuation of the deduction of union dues by the Government on behalf of the GTU, remain before the Court. The hearing in that case brought by the Union is set for March, 20.
“The mediation process dealt specifically with the issue of resumption of talks with a view to arrive at collective bargaining, to honor that aspect of it. The matter before the court, we have every confidence that we have a strong case to prove that the system failed us in the initial stage. Those matters were left before the court because we feel very strongly that the GTU has a solid case.”
In a statement, the Ministry of Education, announced that teachers will return to the classroom and resume teaching as was mandated by the High Court mediation process on March 6.
While welcoming the decision to call off the strike, the Education Ministry said it was unfortunate that the matter had to be determined by the Court.
It said the outcome is in keeping with the Ministry’s long held position that it is “happy to continue with the healthy and constructive conversations that have been ongoing. It said those conversations in the past have “produced several noteworthy results that ensured to the benefit of teachers.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login