Govt’s hiring consultant to settle impasse a delaying ploy – Jagdeo

Planned teachers’ strike

…Education Ministry appears more concerned with hiring scab labour – WPA

Just days before an impasse resulted following talks with Government and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) over salary increases, Education Minister Nicolette Henry indicated that a consultant could be hired to sort the issues related to salary increases in keeping with what both sides had agreed. However, this commitment has drawn the criticism of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary

Bharrat Jagdeo, who has described the move as a ploy to further stall the negotiations.
He made these comments on Thursday last when he said that Government must urgently look into the concerns of teachers.
“This is going like full circle again, and it is another ploy to stall for time; so I would urge the Government to treat with the concerns of teachers as an urgent issue and don’t drag them along in a never-ending issue of negotiations,” Jagdeo said recently.
Jagdeo said views were expressed on the very afternoon that the stalemate was announced, when GTU and Government could not agree on the majority of the financial arrangements for teachers. In fact, the GTU, after meeting for nearly three hours with Government and labour officials, said Thursday that since the situation remained unchanged, their plans remain intact, meaning that an imminent nationwide strike will go ahead as planned.
Jagdeo, speaking at his press conference, pointed out that “for too long”, the nation’s our teachers have been dragged out with the hope that their demands would be addressed.
“It seems as though the Government never had any anything to accede on those

demands…when we asked the minister what was happening with the report of the task force, and when the Government intends to pursue the recommendations, she practically gave zero answer,” he stressed.
Jagdeo said, too, that when Government has matters of similar nature, it should include in the delegations persons who have the authority to makes commitments of the Government.
“Another meeting with the minister, who always claims that ‘I can’t make any final determinations as to what we were hoping,’ is a waste of time,” Jagdeo opined.

WPA position
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA), which forms part of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), on Friday said it is perturbed at the administration for its inability to reach consensus with the GTU on wage increases. Weighing in on the impasse, the WPA said that Government appears to be indifferent regarding the threat of strike action.
“Rather than trying harder to arrive at an agreement, the Ministry of Education, according to reports, appears to be more concerned with hiring scab labour to counter the teachers’ threat. This insensitivity towards the teachers’ reasonable demands is at odds with President Granger’s strident education activism and advocacy for increased and improved access to quality education by our children,” the party noted.
The party noted that, from a political standpoint, it feels that the Government is committing “political suicide by picking a fight with teachers, most of whom voted for the Coalition. It is bad politics to alienate your supporters on a matter that could be easily solved.”
Minister Henry held an emergency press conference following Thursday’s stalemate, at which she signaled that Government is already considering a 2003 Internal Standard Operational Procedure (SoP) which speaks to alternative measures to deal with the fallout from any strike action.
“What it says, parents have to get involved through PTAs (parent-teachers’ associations). It talks (of) hiring of temporary persons in the classroom to fill those gaps; the number of persons on strike or on board; whether you go half-day or rotate; but those are the technical issues, I’ve asked my CEO that we have all of the preliminary work done in the event that we have to activate,” she told the media on Thursday.
The GTU outright rejected Government’s request for teachers to agree to a debunching payoff of $200 million for 2018/19 and similarly rejected the $700 million cap that was placed on salary increases. The stalemate also revealed that Government was not budging on the clothing allowance which remains at $8000.
On Tuesday, through a statement, Minister Henry said it was agreed at the initial meeting that “a consultant will be hired to determine how these monies are going to be allocated in the case of the teachers, regarding both debunching and salaries.”