GTU, Education Ministry disagree over arbitration panel chair
GTU President Mark Lyte
GTU President Mark Lyte

THE Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education have failed to agree on chairmanship of the arbitration panel that will be responsible for settling the ongoing pay dispute between the two parties.

This disclosure was made by GTU President Mark Lyte after emerging from a meeting with ministry officials on Friday.

“We were able to agree upon additional terms of reference for the tribunal but unfortunately, we couldn’t agree on the chairmanship of the tribunal,” he said.

The union proposed former Home Affairs Minister Jeffrey Thomas; former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson and President of a Barbados-based management consulting firm and experienced arbitrator, Dr Aubrey Armstrong.

On the flip side, the Education Ministry proposed Permanent Secretary at the Public Telecommunications Ministry, Dereck Cummings and Human Resources Manager at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Glendon Harris.

But Lyte affirmed that the union just could not accept these nominees. “The ministry put forward two names which are all present and functioning government officials,” Lyte explained, adding that, “Of course, the union had to reject those, because we cannot accept nominees from the government, especially for the chairmanship [for the arbitration panel].”

GTU officials noted that the ministry rejected its nominees without giving a reason.

“These persons [the GTU nominees] would have given of their service to this nation,” GTU General-Secretary Coretta McDonald said.
However, this newspaper was given an official statement from the ministry, detailing why the GTU’s nominees were not accepted.

According to that statement, just as the GTU rejected the persons nominated as arbitrators by the MoE because they are affiliated with the administration, so too did the Mmnistry. The MoE said the GTU’s nominees were persons who, at one stage in a previous administration, had been “involved in active politics.”

With both sides disagreeing on each other’s nominees on the basis of political involvement, the Education Ministry said in moving forward, “it is our expectation that due process will be followed for an arbitrator with no political affiliation.”

Both parties had reportedly made much headway during their initial engagement to determine the terms of reference (ToR) for arbitration. The ToR will dictate how the panel will go about coming to a resolution in the dispute over salary increases and other issues. The panel is also expected to look into the instituting of a multi-year agreement to span 2016 – 2020.

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