THE Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have met to discuss salary increases as well as unresolved issues in relation to benefits for teachers and the need for a review of some old policies that may not be currently relevant to the school system.

Following Friday’s meeting, the two sides committed to meeting monthly on the ongoing issues.

The GTU and MoE had last signed an agreement in 2018 which covered the period of 2016 – 2018. However, though the agreement expired in 2018, the GTU had stated that the agreement carried open-ended clauses for all agreed benefits — including salaries — to continue annually until a new agreement is signed.

“With the current agreement there is an eight per cent per annum, until we have a new agreement,” GTU President Mark Lyte said, pointing out that “The minister was briefed and I know she is going to have her staff work with the Ministry of Finance to iron that out.”

In 2019, teachers had received 8.5-9 per cent salary increases in line with what was administered across the board to public servants. In early 2019, the GTU had submitted a proposal for an agreement to cover the 2019-2021 period; however, having the agreement discussed with the MoE was delayed due to a number of issues, including the holding of General and Regional Elections in 2020. A new government was sworn in, in August this year.

Given the time that has elapsed and situations brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, Lyte said the union is looking to rework the proposal and re-submit another to the new government.

DRAFT PROPOSAL

“We had drafted a proposal and we were yet to enter discussions for that. So we are willing to come to the table with that proposal modified, so that we can commence the discussions. As soon as the ministry indicates that they are ready we will be re-submitting our new multi-year agreement to them,” Lyte said.

Speaking about the need for modifications, Lyte said: “We would want to re-look at the one that we submitted. Given the COVID situation, we want to look at if there is anything we want to add or change.”

But even as the two sides look to begin discussions on the new agreement, as pertains to the 2016-2018 agreement there remains some matters that have not yet been entirely honoured.

“The outstanding benefits have to do with implementation of the debunching. There has been a lot of work to put the stuff in place for debunching, but we are yet to see that rolled out. We also have the House Revolving Fund; a lot of work was put into that but we are yet to see it roll out. For some teachers who were employed in 2016 to present there are still some issues with their salary scales, so that is something we also highlighted. There was also a difference in our two per cent as agreed on from 2016 and that has to be dealt with as well,” Lyte related.

As regards policies, Lyte noted that owing to the ongoing COVID-19 situation whereby schools have remained closed physically, but teachers are conducting classes virtually, there are some customary requirements for teachers that do not apply to this situation; and so that will need to be looked at, in addition to aged policies that may be outdated.

“We need to sit and look at what are the essential records that would be needed at this time. There are also several other policies established decades ago that need to be revised, so why not look at them now”? Lyte said.