EXECUTIVES of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) are considering the 8.5 – 9 per cent salary increases issued to teachers, alongside other public servants, as a temporary payout, given that negotiations are still ongoing with the Ministry of Education for a three-year agreement.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, GTU General-Secretary Coretta McDonald explained that several issues stalled negotiations on the three-year (2019 – 2021) proposal submitted to the Education Ministry by the GTU; the proposal contains the union’s salary increase suggestions among other things.

Since the negotiations are still ongoing, McDonald says nothing is final just yet.
“For us this payout is just an interim one and we’re still looking forward to having the ministry engage us in talks. There were some initial talks with regards to the system we are going to put in place to have the negotiations started for the new proposal.

We would’ve had the change in permanent secretary (PS) and because of that change of the guard, we were not able to have our discussions with the new PS as yet. We’re hoping that before the year ends we’re going to have our initial talks and that will pave the way for further talks,” McDonald said.

Last November, public servants were awarded various levels of salary increases for 2019, ranging from 8.5 to 9 per cent – paid retroactively, and tax free. Though salary increases for teachers are usually treated separately as agreed by GTU and the Education Ministry, teachers were able to benefit from the salary increases.
Though GTU has not disclosed its proposed increases, McDonald told the Guyana Chronicle that the union is requesting a higher percentage.

“In the new proposal, of course we’re going to up the number we had in the previous proposal. We don’t want to disclose that right now because we have not really started our talks with our partners, so we wouldn’t want to, but as soon as we start having our talks then we’re going to have that made public what is the GTU’s aspect,” McDonald said.
What McDonald did disclose, however, is that they will be calling for a new allowance for teachers.

“In this new proposal, we’re asking for risk and emotional allowances for our teachers. We’re asking for that because we’re recognising teachers across this country they’re exposed to all sorts of things; as recent as three weeks ago we had the teacher in the limelight when she was beaten by that parent. And we are saying instances like these teachers have to spend their own monies to seek medical attention. The risk allowance won’t be sufficient, but if there’s a start we can build on that,” she said.

In its last agreement with the Education Ministry signed in 2018, the GTU received retroactive salary increases of 12, eight and eight per cent, respectively, for the years 2016 – 2018. The two sides reached the agreement following strike action by the union, who was initially asking for an across-the-board increase in salary of 40 per cent for 2016 and incremental increases of five per cent in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, to be granted to all categories of teachers and teacher educators.

Salary increases apart, the teachers also got a number of non-salary benefits, including $350M for de-bunching. Clothing allowance was increased to $8,000 per year, while 100 duty-free concessions for vehicles up to 1800cc are being provided to eligible teachers per annum. Rates for improved qualifications between $4,000 and $30,000 were also approved.

Given the upcoming elections, McDonald said the union is willing to work with whoever is the government of the day in the interest of the teachers.