– says gov’t will not negotiate under duress as union makes more demands

Following two days of conciliation talks between the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Labour, the GTU has breached the confidentiality of these discussions by publicizing the meeting details.

This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, during a press conference on Wednesday.
The Ministry expressed shock at seeing the meeting contents in the public domain, contrary to the agreed-upon confidentiality to maintain trust and good faith during negotiations.

She noted that during the talks, both parties were asked to keep the contents of the ongoing meeting confidential to maintain trust amongst the parties and show good faith following the first day of conciliation talks on Monday.

“The ministry was optimistic that there would be a signed resumption agreement and that conciliation would commence especially given we had left the meeting with only two issues to resolve, and we had a way forward on both issues,” the Minister said.

However, during the reconvened meeting on Tuesday, the GTU representatives introduced a two-page document with additional demands before signing any agreement.

“The ministry was shocked, amongst the list of demands were inter alia that the ministry would make a 20 per cent across the board payment immediately before any conciliation agreement or conciliation discussion…” she added.

As a result, the meeting was adjourned with plans to recommence conciliation talks on Monday, May 20, 2024.

The situation escalated when, on Wednesday morning, the Ministry discovered that the contents of the discussions had been publicly disclosed, breaching the confidentiality agreement.

This, Minister Manickchand said, made it clear that there was no interest on the part of the GTU to engage in conciliation to resolve the issues.

“Nowhere in the world would it be considered normal for negotiations to happen under duress… the GTU’s insistence that an across the board 20 per cent be paid before any talks can happen is in fact duress,” Manickchand expressed.

Despite this breach, the government remains committed to resolving the issues but will not succumb to what it views as unreasonable demands.