…GTU President, Education Minister no-show for conciliation talks
As planned, over 7000 teachers across the country are now officially ready to go on strike from Monday, August 27, during schools’ pre-term activities.
This was confirmed by Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) President, Mark Lyte during an interview on Friday.
Lyte also confirmed that he was absent from the conciliation talks on Friday, which was organised by the Social Protection Ministry’s Department of Labour for the Union and the Education Ministry to meet for talks.
According to Lyte, he was unable to attend the meeting since he was out of the
President of the GTU, Mark Lyte
region on duty and only received an official invite on Friday morning.
“The notice was sent late to us so we didn’t attend, so everything remains the same. Our teachers will be going on strike on Monday,” Lyte said.
He indicated that he would have received yet another invitation for a meeting with the same parties, which is now expected to be on August 28; day two into the strike action.
Lyte said he is yet to confirm his attendance to the meeting. Additionally, he stated that based on his meetings with the various clusters, calls have been made for the acceptance of the taskforce’s recommendations.
“I think they are getting mixed up with what the Union initially proposed and what we agreed to in the taskforce. There were several things that were changed, coming out of the Taskforce and those recommendations,” he explained.
According to him, one such example is that the proposed percentage from the Union is 40 per cent on the 2015 salary, and five per cent with each year that came after until 2020.
“So it’s not that we are still asking 40, 45, 50 (per cent) and so on,” he said.
Minister within the Social Protection Ministry, Keith Scott has since said he understands the Union’s reason for a no show.
During an interview with this publication, Scott revealed that another meeting is scheduled for August 28, given that all the required parties were not in attendance on Friday. Guyana Times was told that the meeting on Friday was called to order but was not successful in its objective.
Representatives from the Ministry attended the meeting.
Though Scott said he believes the GTU could have sent representatives to attend
The Guyana Teachers Union, Woolford Avenue headquarters was packed to capacity where many teachers called for mass protest (Shemuel Fanfair photo)
the meeting which is of utmost importance, he related that he understands the Union’s reason for not attending.
“Their absence is (based) on the fact that they are saying they got a late notice. There is no contention on our part on that issue… we were hoping that somebody (from the GTU) would have been there, so because of that I can understand them saying that they were not informed in a timely way,” the Minister said.
He added that no one would like to see one of the country’s greatest resource to go on a strike, because of the known drastic effects it has and would like to see teacher’s get the remuneration they deserve.
Nevertheless, Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle told Guyana Times that he has high expectations for Tuesday’s meeting and is expectant of positive outputs.
“We would be glad for the Union to come (so that) we can bring this to an amicable settlement to resolve it. We are looking for a solution and we were hoping that we could have met today and avoid the strike action on Monday but that wasn’t possible,” Ogle told this publication.
The Department of Labour was called in as a third party to listen to both sides in an effort to come to a compromise, after several talks between the GTU and the Education Ministry passed without much progress.
GTU has rejected Government’s request for teachers to agree to a debunching payoff of $200 million for 2018/19. Lyte said the Union similarly rejected the $700 million cap that was placed on salary increases which was for 2018 only. Government also wants the clothing allowance to remain at $8000, a figure which Lyte said was given in 2011. He said, too, that for Whitley Council Leave, teachers still have to wait four years before getting their one month off, even though the GTU appealed for three years. The Union is seeking 40 per cent salary increases for its 7000 members.
