-Dr Jagdeo says ‘elements’ of the union blocking agreement

THE debacle between the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) continues and with another court action in motion, the country’s Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo believes that certain political forces within the union are opposed to an agreement and any peaceful resolution to the issue at hand.

These “elements” he said are fuelling hostility. Jagdeo’s comments come on the heels of the GTU abandoning a court-mandated discussion with the Education Ministry on salary increases and other issues affecting teachers.

During a press conference at the Office of the President on Thursday last, Dr Jagdeo said: “My own assessment of this, is that from the reports I get, is that there are elements within the Teachers’ Union delegation who are not interested, whose demeanor and tone at the meeting would demonstrate that they are not interested in an agreement.”

He added: “They want turmoil.” As the GTU continues to stand on a shaky foundation, especially with the recent revelations regarding the lack of transparency and accountability, Dr Jagdeo spared no effort in highlighting the flagrant violations that have been taking place within the organisation.

“I’ve already pointed out that Coretta McDonald, based on their own union rules, should not be a Member of Parliament or she should resign as General Secretary of the Teachers’ Union. The rules of the Union prohibit a General Secretary from being in the Parliament. That’s their own union rules…” the Vice President said.

The Union’s rules state: “Any person holding a Teachers Certificate acceptable to the Executive Council but who is not eligible for active membership, may become an associate member of the union by making application therefor to the Executive Council.”

Further, Clause C, Section II of the rules outline: “Associate members shall have the right to vote, but shall not be eligible to hold the office of the President or General Secretary… [this includes] teachers who leave the classroom to serve as Members of Parliament.”

Notably, McDonald was sworn in as an A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Parliamentarian in 2020, and, using the union’s rule book, her stint as General Secretary of the GTU should have ended.

The rule book reads: “The annual conference may confer honorary associate membership without the levy of fees on any person who applies therefor and falls in any of the following categories:-… teachers who leave the classroom to serve as Members of Parliament; such membership to expire at the end of the individual’s term of office as a Member of Parliament.”
The Vice President then went on to say: “Anyone who has listened to Coretta McDonald would recognise that she has more political interests,” as he highlighted the concerning utterances that the Opposition Parliamentarian has been making in the public domain recently.

He further added: “So, all of these things led me to believe that this is a very political issue… And I think there are many in the leadership who want to work to resolve this, [but] they get browbeaten. They get threatened implicitly, that they must not reach an agreement, that we must keep this hostile.”

‘NOT FEASIBLE’
The Vice President also spoke on the proposals made by the GTU, which in essence, wants the current government to compensate for what the previous coalition administration did not do.

Dr Jagdeo said that the proposals cannot be accommodated within the fiscal framework. He said that despite having some misgivings about the court-ordered mediation, especially since it involved public policy, the government still agreed to talks with the GTU.

“There is a prohibition when there’s public policy involved, that the court should really not order mediation. In fact, in the rules, it says that explicitly, and wages and salaries are public policy matters. Two, we believe that there are established grievance or dispute resolution mechanisms outlined in the labour law and in contracts, therefore, the court should yield to those.

“Nevertheless, out of respect for the court, we participated in the mediation exercise, because we would like to see an end to this matter, too…”

President of the GTU Mark Lyte, on Thursday, said there will be no compromise on the part of the union to discuss only salary increases for 2024 with the Ministry of Education and insisted that negotiations must surround retroactive pay hikes for the period 2019 – 2023.

But the Vice President said this is not feasible since teachers were not in the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What the union wants cannot be accommodated by the fiscal framework. They want us to sign a multi-year agreement retroactively; a multi-year agreement retroactive to 2019.

“So, if you reopen that for teachers, you have to, out of fairness; you have to ensure that every other category would get the same retroactive increase.”
The Vice President said that although the government cannot provide a retroactive increase, they are prepared to sign a three-year agreement, beginning from 2024.

As such, the GTU was asked to prepare a multi-year agreement within this framework to start negotiations. However, according to the Vice President, the GTU “walked out” of the meeting.