The nation’s teachers are likely to resume industrial action if no progress is made soon at the level of arbitration to fast-track the issue of wage increases.
This is according to General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald who said on Tuesday that this process is dependent on the Labour Department.
“We are guided by our Constitution and the Constitution gives our members the authority to dictate what happens. So, when all of this recent information would have been said to our members, as well as our attorney, they will decide what we will do after…so we have not ruled out further strike action,” she said when asked about the next course of action.
McDonald said while it is not the first option to take strike action, if they are given no choice, they may have to head down that road again, but this time on a larger scale.
“The GTU is hopeful that the sole issue will be resolved in a matter of a month or two months. We are going to continue to be vigilant, very vocal and we will continue to have our members updated on what is happening” McDonald told this publication.
Following the last meeting, McDonald said the GTU had written the Education Ministry indicating that they are still willing to have talks again with the Department of Labour about naming someone to chair the arbitration panel.
She said, “It says to propose, and proposals on many instances, are not accepted. So, we will wait for the proposal to be made and for the invitation to be made for that meeting. And we will listen for the name to be mentioned.”
The panel will be expected to broker a new multi-year agreement for the period 2016 to 2020. The last agreement expired in 2015.
In the meantime, the Department of Labour through the Social Protection Ministry said it will be nominating a chairman on behalf of the Education Ministry, to head the arbitration panel for the Ministry and GTU.
The Department of Labour on Monday said the two parties have failed to agree on a common chairman, and in keeping with the provisions of the extant Collective Labour Agreement between themselves, the Education Ministry sought the intervention of the Social Protection Ministry to nominate the chairman.
Moreover, the Social Protection Ministry said it agreed to satisfy the request of the Education Ministry and has since written to the President of the Teachers’ Union indicating its acceptance of the Ministry’s request.
The Union was advised also, that it would be informed of future developments on the matter in due course.
The Education Ministry on Friday, September 14, 2018, rejected the GTU’s proposed arbitrators without giving reasons, resulting in the Union also rejecting the Ministry’s arbitrators during the second meeting held last week to put an end to the ongoing teachers’ salary impasse.
The two officials which Government proposed were Permanent Secretary of the Telecommunications Ministry, Derrick Cummings and Human Resources Manager of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Glenndon Hariss.
On the other hand, GTU proposed former Home Affairs Minister Jeffrey Thomas; former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson and an experienced arbitrator, Aubrey Armstrong.
McDonald said the GTU thinks the Ministry’s rejection of their nominees speaks to the fact that they are not prepared to have neutral professionals sit on the panel.
The GTU recently called off a nationwide strike after the Government gave in to arbitration during the second round of conciliation talks, being mediated by Minister Keith Scott.
At that time, some 4000 teachers were on strike after several talks failed between the two parties with regards to a salary increase for teachers.
The Union 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 G$200 million for 2018/19.
The Union similarly rejected the G$700 million cap that was placed on salary increases which was for 2018 only.
Government also wants the clothing allowance to remain at G$8000, a figure the GTU said was given in 2011. As for the Whitley Council Leave, teachers still have to wait four years before getting their one-month off, even though the GTU appealed for that period to be reduced to three years.
