President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte has recently disclosed that the Union is currently working on a new multi-year proposal to submit to the Education Ministry which will address salary and other non-salary benefits.
According to him, the Union is hoping to submit the document by the second week in December in an effort to avoid the discrepancies encountered during the last bargaining process with the Ministry.
Although he was reluctant to reveal the percentage that the Union is proposing in the new agreement, he said the Union will find ways to justify its proposal.
Things went haywire during the most recent bargaining process between the two parties which left children in empty classrooms as teachers resorted to the streets, calling for increased salaries.
In fact, it was only late October that the GTU and the Education Ministry came to an agreement with regards to teachers’ salary.
As the agreement was inked on October 24, 2018, for a 12 per cent increase for 2016 and eight per cent for 2018, Lyte said the Union has learnt its lesson and is looking forward to brokering a better agreement come 2019.
Moreover, the GTU President pointed out that the Union has “learnt so many lessons” and is now better prepared for the next bargaining process with the Education Ministry.
He explained that he believes the agreement made will better satisfy teachers and their families, thus resulting in classrooms being better serviced.
On the other hand, General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta McDonald during a telephone interview with Guyana Times International said she believes the Union should have been more diligent.
She stated, “As a Union we needed to do a little more work, we needed to be a little more diligent in what we were doing, but it’s a learning experience and come 2019 our teachers, if it’s going to be a three-year or a five-year agreement, our teachers will see many more benefits coming their way”.
“Those teachers who would have felt neglected over the past years and they weren’t being able to gain access to their benefits I want to say to them rest assure, the GTU has been there for you, we will continue to be there for you and your benefits are intact,” she added.
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).
