After more than one month after a nationwide teachers’ strike was called off, Government has finally agreed to increase the salaries of teachers by 12 per cent for 2016 and eight per cent for 2018. This was disclosed on Friday at the Education Ministry’s Brickdam, Georgetown office, following a six-hour long discussion between Education Minister Nicolette Henry and executives of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).
The Minister revealed, “What we have proposed essentially is in so far as 2016 in concerned, we finalised at 12 and eight per cent respectively and for 2018 we’re at eight per cent and the debunching figure (is) the one that we shared earlier the
Education Minister Nicolette Henry and GTU President Mark Lyte along with officials following the end of the impasse on Friday
$315,000,000”.
Although fewer smiles were seen on the faces of the executives, the President of the GTU, Mark Lyte told Guyana Times that the Union is satisfied with the amount being given to teachers.
“We are walking away a lot happier than initially. We recognise that we were able to broker an agreement with the Ministry of Education that will bring a lot of satisfaction to our member and I think that was the ultimate objective of this whole process to ensure that every teacher benefits significantly”.
According to him, the previous offers tabled did not provide benefits for all teachers. In fact, some 80 per cent of teachers, he said, would not have benefited from the Government’s previous offer.
It was explained by him that the increases for teachers will be paid in two tranches. “The increases are going to be paid in two tranches because you know what teachers receive in 2016 would have an impact on 2017 and 2018, so we are going to have payments being done in December and payments being done in January 2019”.
A joint statement shared with the media from the two agencies said “Having considered new information provided, which included salary benefits for all scales of teachers ranging from TS1 to TS19 and special and non-salary benefits, the two parties concluded discussions and have committed to the implementation of the agreement. The three-year 2016 to 2018 agreement will be signed in the new week”.
Better relations
As the two parties are still recouping from the last protest action where calls were even being made for the Education Minister to be removed from the office, the two are gearing towards improving their relations, through more collaboration.
“Well certainly for any relationship to be improved it requires some amount of collaboration, cooperation (and) communication. Those are key words and key
GTU and the Education Ministry engaging members of the media on Friday afternoon
things that have to happen,” the Minister stated.
She was keen to note that quite a lot of that has been happening over the past few days, resulting in the ultimate resolution. Henry also noted that as better relations with the Union continue to be of concern, the matter was discussed on how involved the two will be in meetings and programmes bilaterally, especially since the Ministry believes the Union was created to support its work.
General Secretary displeased
Although the President of the GTU would have said the Union is satisfied with the amount, the Union’s General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, during an exclusive interview told Guyana Times that she is not pleased with the amount being given to teachers.
As a serving educator, she would only say that “teachers deserve more”. When asked to say more about the offer, she opted not to, saying “I’ll say all the wrong, wrong things”.
When Lyte was questioned as to whether all the executives would have agreed to the amount, he said, “I can’t speak for the General Secretary. We sat there as a group and we made decisions so everyone had a chance to give their input and everything”.
Called off
Not only has the arbitration process been wiped off the table due to the recent agreement being made, but also the thought of strike action.
Teachers were gearing up for another round of protest action, following a number of failed discussions between the GTU and the Ministry. They were being rallied up by the Union as they were unable to agree with the Ministry to appoint an arbitration panel to rule over the teachers’ wages dispute.
Moreover, the then conciliator, Minister within the Labour Department, Keith Scott took it upon himself to introduce a University of Guyana Professor, Leyland Lucas to chair the panel.
The Union at that time said they believed they were being bullied and never attended meetings, following the unilateral appointment. Even as they were planning to head back to the streets, the Ministry threatened legal action, which the Union said it was well-prepared for.
The last nationwide teachers strike took effect on August 27, 2018, 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, 2018.
On Monday, President David Granger finally intervened where he offered the Union a 10 per cent increase for 2016 and eight per cent for 2018.
The President’s move came days after Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo advised that Granger take a stand on the matter.
This is the second time that the President has been forced to intervene between the GTU and the Education Ministry to resolve the wage-related matters.
Last November, a high-level taskforce was appointed by him to oversee these matters.
Initial calls
A 40 per cent salary increase for public school teachers was initially 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’ payout 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.
