Opposition, GPSU slam President Ali for violating collective bargaining with Teachers Union

Last Updated on Friday, 6 October 2023, 17:00 by Denis Chabrol

President Irfaan Ali, flanked by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh and Education Minister Priya Manickchand, meeting with some teachers at State House

The opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU have separately castigated President Irfaan Ali for holding talks directly with teachers and warned that settling for allowances now would cheat them of larger retirement pensions and gratuities.

The GPSU accused President Ali of violating the Constitution, Laws of Guyana, Parliament-ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions and binding Agreements for Avoidance and Settlements of Disputes. “The President’s ill-advised approach is an act of negotiation in bad faith in violation of Article 23(1) of the Trades Union Recognition Act and which apparently, is intended to set the stage for another arbitrary imposition of salaries, allowances and other conditions of work,” the GPSU said.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton suggested that Dr Ali violated Guyana’s constitution, showed total disregard for the authorised bargaining agent, the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), and undermined the trade union movement. “We believe the government must bargain with the trade union. Their entire approach is anti-working class,” he told a news conference.

GTU General Secretary, Coretta Mc Donald accused government of handpicking 100 teachers with whom preparatory meetings were held before the engagement with the President at State House. “They don’t speak on behalf of the Guyana Teachers Union,” said Ms Mc Donald who is also an opposition parliamentarian.

She said all four teachers in Region One sub-district Moruca are connected to People’s Progressive Party (PPP) persons. She said the other teachers in those schools were not consulted by the quartet.

Turning her attention to those teachers, who asked the President for allowances instead of salary increases, she said those allowances would not benefit them in the long-run. “Of course, we feel sorry and we pity them because they were given scripts but let me make it clear that allowances and increased allowances, they don’t add anything to a teacher’s salary. As a matter of fact, that act of putting a teacher to read from a script to talk about increased allowances, it’s wicked and devious,” she said.

The GTU General Secretary again warned that all teachers would not receive those allowances and would not be part of the tabulation for pensions and gratuities. “It is total disrespect for those teachers, who were dedicated to serving this country in the education sector and have retired now; they showed no respect for them because allowances will not increase their pensions they are receiving so the whole act in itself is a wicked and deceitful one,” Ms Mc Donald added.

Condemning “this clear display of executive lawlessness” which largely triggered the crippling 57-days strike of April-June 1999, the GPSU called on workers and the general citizenry to support trade unions in pressuring the government to return to the legally stipulated collective bargaining process by rejecting the President and his cohorts’ anti-Trade Union posture. “The people should also demand that the President put into action his vociferous proclamations of the necessity for collective bargaining, which he made in 2016 as an opposition parliamentarian. Surely, his government must be reminded that it was the workers who elevated him and his Cabinet to the positions they now exploit to the detriment of the workers,” the GPSU added.

The GPSU cautioned government that its intransigent behaviour is rapidly tearing the delicate fabric of national unity. “Sowing these seeds of division in an already racially and politically fragmented country, at a time when our enemies are marshalling for our destruction is only going to reap unrest, poverty, criminal conduct, unpatriotic behavior and suffering on a scale which is unfathomable at this time. We can only hope that good sense prevails in the national interest.”

The GTU had said the Ministry of Labour has turned down its request to intervene in the pay dispute on the grounds that the President was interfacing with the teachers.

The GTU’s proposal calls for a 25 percent across-the-board increase in salary for 2019, and 20 percent for every other year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) be granted to all categories of teachers\teacher educators for the years 2019-2023. The union is also asking for an additional  performance based incentive of two percent annually of the total teachers’ wage bill for all eligible teachers; a monthly emotional/stress/risk Allowance of $5,000, a monthly internet allowance for GY$10,000; GY$10,000 to all teachers who use their motor vehicles, boats and motor cycles to attend workshops, orientation sessions, emergencies at school, to uplift grants, pay sheets and/or are travelling for the conduct of Teaching Practice organized by the Cyril Potter College of Education; a monthly allowance of GY$7,000 to conduct business on behalf of their institutions.