…likely to put forward counter-proposal, wants agreement on non-salary benefits
THE Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is likely to put forward a counterproposal to the government’s latest offer, which would include agreement on a number of non-salary benefits and a continuation of the negotiations when they meet representatives of the Ministry of Education today.
Sources close to the union told the Guyana Chronicle that, the union would like the government to up the 10 and eight per cent offers made by President David Granger when they met on Monday, but more particularly, they would want to see some agreements on a range of non-salary benefits. “The union had a package which it had put forward at the beginning of these talks and there would have to be some agreements on these things,” the sources.
President Granger and the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Monday met with the GTU and extended a new salary offer. 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 said he 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 did not accept the offer, but is expected to meet again with the MoE today to confirm their decision.
GTU President Mark Lyte told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, that the union was 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 had 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.”
The new offer by the government 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 the negotiation talks ended in impasse when GTU rejected the MoE’s offer of a one-time 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 five 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 the chairman of the arbitration panel, giving the department seven days to withdraw the appointment.
President Granger said on Monday following the meeting: “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.”
