New offer for teachers
President David Granger, seated third from left and Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry (at the President's right) during a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union. (Ministry of the Presidency photo)
President David Granger, seated third from left and Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry (at the President's right) during a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union. (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

…President optimistic end of impasse is near
…GTU to consult members on new proposal

FOLLOWING meetings with President David Granger and the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Monday, the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) has been extended a new salary offer, as the government works to avert another strike by the teachers.

The offer will see teachers being paid retroactively from 2016, with a salary increase of 10 per cent for 2016, and incremental increases of eight per cent for 2017 and 2018, respectively; while for debunching $350 million is being offered for the period 2011 – 2018.
Following the meeting, President Granger was optimistic that the two sides have found “common ground” and “are now closer to a resolution than ever before.” It is expected that an announcement would be made by Friday.

The GTU has not yet accepted the offer, but is expected to meet again with the MoE Wednesday to confirm their decision. According to GTU President, Mark Lyte, the Union is currently in the process of consulting with its members so as to come up with a consensus on whether or not to accept the offer. “We depend a lot on the feedback we get from our members between [Monday] and Wednesday morning. If our members say they’re good with it then we go ahead, we have to go with the wishes of the members,” Lyte explained.
“If we accept the offer then it means that we will then be signing an agreement for the paying out of these monies and for the benefits that have accumulated over years, duty-free concessions the clothing allowance, all of those to be given out, and look towards putting a new agreement in place.”

This offer came after the GTU had announced, last week, that it was preparing to once again embark on a nationwide strike by teachers. An almost two week strike by teachers came to an end just last month, when the GTU and MoE had agreed to take their salary dispute to arbitration. The GTU called for arbitration after negotiations talks ended in impasse when GTU rejected the MoE’s offer of a onetime pay out of $700 million towards salary increases, and $200 million for debunching.

GTU instead called for an increase of 40 per cent for 2016 and respective incremental increases of 5 per cent for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. After the two sides agreed to move to arbitration, Lyte had announced that GTU was willing to accept as little as 20 per cent. This new strike was being called after the GTU said it was rejecting the Department of Labour’s unilateral appointment of University of Guyana (UG) Professor, Dr. Leyland Lucas, as Chairman of the arbitration panel, giving the department seven days to withdraw the appointment.

Following the announcement that they were prepared to strike again, the GTU officials were summoned to a meeting with the President. The meeting was attended on the government’s side by Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson, MoE Acting Permanent Secretary, Adele Clarke and MoE Human Resources Manager, Jacqueline Simon. GTU was represented by Lyte, General Secretary, Coretta McDonald and other executives.

“This is a very important meeting for both sides… we have been kept abreast, Cabinet has been informed by the MoE and we are aware of what has been taking place, unfortunately there has been some hiccups but we now seem to be coming to the end of the road. We have reached a broad area in which, I would say that, we have reached common ground. I don’t want to call it an agreement but we have reached common ground and I think the people of Guyana could look forward to an amicable resolution within days. The intention is to create a basis for an agreement between the two sides as early as possible, possibly by Friday,” Granger said, adding that: “It is important that we complete this process because we are aware that the teachers have expectations and we want to assure the teachers their concerns about issues they’ve raised, they are not being ignored.”

It was last year that Granger had intervened in the situation between the GTU and MoE and had called for the creation of a high level task force to look into the issue.

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