Declaring the Government’s surprise at the planned resumption of strike action by teachers from tomorrow, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, has declared that the Government stands ready to engage the GTU on the multi-year agreement from 2024.

The GTU has been pressing the Government to first look at the outstanding 2019-2023 proposal that it had submitted since 2020, but the Government has been insisting that it will only look at an agreement that covers this year and the years ahead.

In a one-paragraph letter to the GTU President, Mark Lyte, the Education Ministry’s Permanent Secretary acknowledged receiving a correspondence from the GTU on the planned resumption of the strike by teachers, and noted the administration’s surprise.

After hosting branch meetings, the Guyana Teachers Union announced on Tuesday, its decision to restart the strike action over the stalled talks on the 2019 to 2023 proposal. The union has accused the Government of bluntly refusing to engage in collective bargaining on the outstanding proposals and wanting to force the union to move ahead and just focus on this year and the years ahead.

During a virtual meeting with teachers yesterday, the GTU President said enough patience has been exercised with the Government on the issue. He noted that teachers were hopeful that the Government would have done the “right thing” when teachers ended their earlier strike action after filing a case in the Court.

The Court ruled in favour of the teachers and granted a number of orders against the Government, including an order which prohibits the Government from deducting money from the salaries of teachers for their strike action, which the Court ruled was “justified”. The Government has indicated that it will appeal that Court decision, but it has not re-engaged the union on any issue since that order was handed down by the Court.

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