Teachers return to classrooms, as MoE, GTU resume talks

Heeding the call from their union, teachers have returned to the classrooms, successfully allowing the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) to resume talks on salary increases and other benefits for the nation’s educators.
As a result, representatives of the two parties returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday.
This was confirmed by GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald during a telephone interview with this publication.
This is the first phase of conciliatory talks between the two entities since the signing of the Agreement of Resumption just five days ago.
Meanwhile, in a Department of Public Information (DPI) report it was stated that statistics from the Education Ministry on Thursday has shown that 90 per cent teachers from nursery, primary, and secondary schools countrywide turned out to their classrooms this week.
The agreement signed between the union and the ministry paved the way for the 70-plus day strike action by teachers to end.
In fact, McDonald explained that immediately after the meeting began, both parties wasted no time and delved straight into discussing the payment period for salary increases.
“Yes, we resumed talks yesterday [Wednesday]. We had our first set of talks. Those were on the timeline, the time frame… We look forward to having many more fruitful meetings. This period was now in the phase of looking at the proposals and hearing from the Ministry of Education, by extension, the Government, what they are willing to offer,” McDonald said on Thursday.
When questioned about the union’s previous requests which included across-the-board increases before resuming conciliation talks – something which the Ministry had rejected – McDonald said that GTU’s decision to compromise was in the interest of all teachers.

Agreement of Resumption
The Agreement of Resumption was signed on June 21 between the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Education Ministry.
Among the terms of the agreement was for the end of the strike and full resumption of work by all teachers/educators within two working days; no discrimination or loss of service or transfer of any teachers who were on strike; and for the status quo to prevail pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.
The agreement also states that upon the full resumption of work by teachers, conciliation will commence forthwith to determine whether the timeframe proposed by GTU – 2019 to 2023 – or the ministry – 2024 and onwards – should form part of a new multi-year agreement. These talks will be held in accordance with the 1990 Grievance Procedure Memorandum.
These talks will be held in accordance with the 1990 Memorandum of Agreement, which followed a breakdown of talks between the ministry and the union and resulted in the intervention of the Labour Ministry to mediate between the two parties.

Govt always committed
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry, Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, had last week reaffirmed that Government has always been committed to ensuring what is best for the children, the teachers, and the nation.
Further, she expressed optimism that the Multi-Year Agreement with the GTU would be amicably resolved.
“The Ministry of Education, and by extension the Government, is very happy that we have come to an agreement, and that we can conclude this first step in the conciliation process… We look forward to the continued commitment of the GTU, as we are committed to bringing a conclusion to this matter, so that at the end of it, we can have a Multi-Year Agreement that benefits all parties,” she had said.
President of the GTU, Mark Lyte, echoed similar sentiments by saying, “GTU is committed to the process to ensure that we continue to negotiate in good faith, and at the end of it, we arrive at a position that would be beneficial to the children, the teachers and the nation as a whole… I hope that we can find common ground and see the bigger picture as we go forward.” (G1)