After turning down Govt’s 2024 salary proposal: GTU now asks High Court to order negotiations for 2019-2023 pay hike

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has asked the High Court for an Order of Mandamus, mandating the Guyana Government to engage in collective bargaining from 2019 to 2023.
Court documents seen by this publication on Friday have listed Attorney General Anil Nandlall as the respondent and the Guyana Trades Union Congress as intervener.
Among the requests is one for an order directing the Ministry of Education to disclose all correspondences between the GTU and the MoE in relation to collective bargaining discussions, as claimed by the Ministry of Education; or alternatively, to disclose whether or not there are any such documents in existence.
GTU is also asking for a declaration that it has a right to negotiation within the period 2019-2023; a declaration that the refusal to negotiate for the period 2019-2023 constitutes a breach of its right to collective bargaining under Article 147 of the Constitution of Guyana; a declaration that the minutes dated March 7, 2024 created a binding agreement; and a declaration that the agreement arising from the said minutes created a legitimate expectation.
Moreover, the GTU has requested that Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussain and Education Ministry Permanent Secretary Shannielle Hoosein-Outar be held in contempt of court for “unwillingness and bad faith for refusing to discuss collective bargaining for the period 2019-2023”.
The court ordered mediation between the two parties on February 29, and it resulted in an agreement being arrived at between the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Attorney General of Guyana on behalf of the Education Ministry. That agreement
outlined that the teachers shall resume work on or before March 6, and discussion shall proceed within 48 hours of resumption of work, and shall be in relation to matters which either party considers relevant for discussion between the Union and the Government, including financial matters.
Following that agreement, teachers resumed work, and the MoE and GTU agreed to table the multi-year proposal 2019-2023 for discussion. On March 7, the Chief Education Officer indicated to the Union that he would serve as the Chief Negotiator on behalf of the Ministry of Education. However, at the next meeting, on March 12, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education then announced that she was the Chief Negotiator.
That last engagement between the GTU and the MoE saw the Permanent Secretary indicating that the parties would not engage in discussion on collective bargaining for salaries for the period 2019-2023.
The GTU proceeded to stage a walkout of that engagement, and has since been
contending that reneging on the agreement to discuss collective bargaining from 2019-2023 is contemptuous and is a breach of Article 147 of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, as well as the agreement.

Walked away
On Thursday, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed that the GTU has walked away from a three-year proposal submitted by the Government for salary increases from 2024 onwards.
Government has already said it is unfair for the GTU to request pay hikes for years when teachers were at home during the COVID-19 pandemic – those years are from 2020 to 2022; and that the budget cannot accommodate a retroactive increase that spans several years.
These positions have been reiterated by VP Jagdeo during a press conference at the Office of the President on Thursday, when he added that an alternative proposal was offered to the GTU.
Prior to this, the Chief Education Officer had countered claims made by the GTU in its court proceedings: that it was never engaged by the Education Ministry on salary-related issues for teachers. The GTU said its General Secretary Coretta McDonald had written President Dr Irfaan Ali on April 18, 2023, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the way forward for teachers.
In court documents filed in February 2024 by the GTU (applicant) against the Attorney General of Guyana (respondent), the GTU has disclosed that only non-financial matters had been discussed with the Education Ministry regarding its multi-year proposal for the period 2019-2023, which had been submitted to Government in September 2020.
But Hussain, in his affidavit to the court, pointed out that from August 11, 2020 until January 31, 2024, the GTU and the MoE had met continuously: on average once monthly, sometimes as many as three times per month. Those meetings, he noted, had dealt with the demands of the applicant as well as demands of the Ministry regarding the general welfare and well-being of teachers and the best interests of the education sector.
Hussain also explained that the MoE had “successfully and satisfactorily” addressed 30 of the 41 proposals made by the applicant in the past three years; and of the 11 outstanding requests, two are specifically only to benefit GTU executive members, while two others cannot be granted because they are contrary to the laws of Guyana. (G12)