GTU calls for removal of imposed arbitration Chairman

Wages dispute

…threatens to take Govt to court for punishing striking teachers

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on Wednesday called on its members to be on standby as it gears for another round of strike action; this time on a larger scale, if the imposed chairman for the arbitration panel – for the wages dispute between Government and the Union – is not withdrawn. The Chairman of the

arbitration panel, Dr Leyland Lucas of the University of Guyana. He was named arbitrator last week and according to the GTU, they did not agree to the nomination but rather Lucas was imposed on them by the Labour Department.
According to the Union, it is also prepared to take the Education Ministry, and more so, the Government to court, if any action is taken against teachers who will be going on strike.
This was related by the President of the Union, Mark Lyte. He told media operatives that he believes the ministers – both Education and Labour – have literacy issues, since at all times, in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the Education Ministry has made reference to, the word “nominate”.
Additionally, Lyte also said the Union has not taken lightly the threat by the Education Ministry to penalise teachers, who are prepared to strike.
He was at the time making reference to the threat issued by the Ministry, after the Union announced its plans to head to industrial action for a second time.
The Ministry pointed to the section of that agreement which stated, “during the consideration of the matter in dispute under the grievance procedure, there shall be no strike, stoppage of work whether of a partial or general nature, go slow, boycott, picketing, retardation of production or any other interference with the Ministry’s operations by the Union, nor shall there be any lock out or any other form of interference by the Ministry. Both parties shall endeavour to maintain a state of normal industrial relations”. This agreement was signed back in July 1983.

No breach
However, Lyte on Wednesday explained, “we do not see any breach as being committed if we call our members out because as far as we’re concerned, the arbitration panel and the Terms of Reference are the first two steps to setting arbitration… but arbitration, in our view, hasn’t started as yet so if that is to happen, the GTU would have no other course but to walk the steps of the court with them (Education Ministry) because we are prepared to ensure that our

members do not suffer in any way, so we will be prepared to go to court as well”.
The Union on Wednesday gave the Ministry seven days to withdraw Lucas as the Chairman of the arbitration panel.
Lyte also noted that he believes Government has no intentions to address the issue at hand. It is because of this, he promised that this round of strike action would be much “bigger”, due to the support of its sister Unions, who sat beside them in Wednesday’s meeting.
The Union’s head said it believes Government has sinister plans, as it remains reluctant to appoint a neutral Chairman to head the arbitration panel.
“I am of the view that there is some sinister plan afoot to thwart the process and not to allow fairness and equity to prevail… we take note of the fact that strike action is always a last resort and we thought having given the Administration an ultimatum of seven days that we would have had a favourable response instead the Minister with responsibility for Labour would have issued appointment letters to the nominee from the Ministry of Education and the Chairperson in the form of Dr Leyland Lucas,” Lyte said.

‘Imposed’ Chairman
Last Tuesday, Labour Minister Keith Scott, who is still currently acting in the capacity of a conciliator, took it upon himself to introduce the Chairman for the arbitration panel to address the ongoing teachers’ salary impasse.
The move was highly condemned by the Union as they did not get a chance to introduce their nominee for a Chairman to the panel.
The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) as well as the Guyana Trade Unions Congress (GTUC) has since vocalised its support for the Union’s call for better wages of its teachers. The GTU have in fact called for Minister Scott to apologise for his unilateral appointment for a Chairman to the arbitration panel and for humiliating the Professor.
The last nationwide teachers strike took effect on August 27 during schools’ pre-term activities and lasted for a little under two weeks, as the Ministry gave into the pressure and agreed to arbitration on September 6.
A 40 per cent salary increase for public school teachers was proposed for the year 2016. Over time, the percentage would be increased for all categories of represented teachers.
For the year 2017, the Union was hoping to have bargained for a 45 per cent increase, which would then increase to 50 per cent for the remainder of the years indicated in the agreement (2018-2020).
They recently changed their demands and said they were willing to accept a ‘substantial’ pay-out from the Government even after the GTU rejected Government’s request for teachers to agree to a debunching payoff of $200 million for 2018/19.