– AG to procced with filing of appeal

ALTHOUGH, nearly a month has passed since the controversial ruling favouring the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) by High Court Judge, Sandil Kissoon, whose written judgment is yet to be made available, the government is moving forward to file an appeal to overturn it.

This announcement was made byAttorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., while speaking on his Facebook programme ‘Issues in the News,’ on Tuesday.
In his ruling on April 19, Justice Kissoon held that the teachers’ strike was legitimate since collective bargaining between the Ministry of Education and the union had not been properly undertaken.

“We have not yet received that written ruling, although the judge said from the bench, when he was delivering the judgment, that we will get it shortly after he read it from what I understand was a prepared text. And he said so, therefore, it ought not to take a long time to make it available.

“One month has gone by, and we are still to receive the judgement. I had planned to wait for the judgement to be delivered before I filed my appeal. But since we are now running out of time, I will have to proceed to file my appeal and make my application for a stay,” he said.

Nandlall stated that the state will file an appeal and reserve the right to include additional grounds for the appeal once the written judgement is released.
As the clock ticks, Nandlall pointed out that the government faces a critical deadline, forcing it to consider pre-emptive legal manoeuvres in the absence of the awaited document before the six-week deadline expires.

Nandlall had previously voiced serious worries about the legal validity of the ruling and expressed concerns about the potential consequences it could have on future labour relations.
He vehemently labelled the decision as “bad in law,” stressing its profound impact on the nation’s educational landscape and broader labour dynamics.

Last week, the GTU resumed its call for industrial action. However, the Government of Guyana reaffirmed its commitment and said that it is ready to continue engagement with the union on the Multi-Year Agreement from 2024 onwards.

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, said that the ministry was surprised at the proposed continuation of industrial action.
In March, the GTU and the Education Ministry met to continue the collective bargaining process, which was halted due to a strike in February.

During the meeting, the ministry supported the government’s stance that talks about salary increases should only begin in 2024 and beyond.
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.
The strike was eventually called off on March 4, 2024, as a result of court-ordered mediation conducted by two Senior Counsel, Edward Luckhoo and Robin Stoby.

Despite the Ministry of Education meeting over half of the 41 proposals made by the GTU for improved working conditions within just three years, the teachers still went on strike.
Government officials had also challenged the union’s claims by highlighting that discussions were ongoing to satisfy the other requests. Since the requirements for conducting a strike were not satisfied, the government had declared that the strike action was illegal.

The GTU action against the government, in which the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) was added as an intervener, was centred on whether teachers can legally refuse to work while still being paid, as a form of protest or negotiation.
In his decision, the judge stated that there was evidence to show that the government failed to engage the union in collective bargaining, unilaterally forced salary hikes on teachers, and snubbed or rebuffed the union’s “every attempt” to negotiate collectively, as envisaged by Article 147 (3) of the Guyana Constitution, which states that neither an employer nor a trade union shall be denied the right to enter into collective arguments.
The government was ordered to pay the GTU $500,000 in costs and GTUC, $750,000 in costs.