AMIDST calls by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) to resume industrial action, the Government of Guyana stands ready to continue engagement with the union.
This was according to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, who, in correspondence to the president of the Union, Mark Lyte, stated that the Ministry was surprised at the proposed continuation of industrial action.

Hoosein- Outar in the letter added, “As indicated before, the Government of Guyana stands ready to continue engaging the Guyana Teachers’ Union on the Multi-Year Agreement from 2024 onwards.”
This letter came in response to one which was sent by the Union that indicated that it would resume strike action due to “failed collective bargaining” between the two parties and asked teachers to not report for work from May 9, 2024, until further notice.

Representatives of the GTU and the Education Ministry had a meeting in March to resume the collective bargaining process, which had been interrupted by a strike in February.
At that meeting, the Ministry upheld the government’s position that discussions surrounding salary increases should be from 2024 onwards.

The Permanent Secretary explained that increases for the prior years would have financial implications and the 2024 budget does not have the fiscal space to facilitate the retroactive payment of salaries for teachers during the period of 2019 to 2023.
As such, the Union representatives were asked to submit a proposal to the ministry that would capture their request for a multi-year agreement commencing 2024.

That meeting reached an impasse as GTU indicated that they were only interested in discussing salaries between the 2019 to 2023 period. The representatives of the Union further abandoned the process and walked out of the meeting.