Labour movement’s legal action looms, as some striking teachers return to classrooms

Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 February 2024, 15:56 by Denis Chabrol

Teachers and other persons outside the Ministry of Finance, Main Street, Georgetown.

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), backed by the umbrella Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), is poised to take legal action against government for stopping the deduction of union dues, refusing to negotiate for increased salaries and allowances and deducting monies from striking teachers, union officials said Tuesday.

“Our lawyers have advised that there are legal commitments that government has to undertake providing that the steps are taken for the process of strike and that based on those advice we believe that we have a strong case,” GTU President Dr Mark Lyte. He earlier Tuesday said on a Facebook Live that salary deductions could not be made arbitrarily without the decision of the Teaching Service Commission.

Dr Lyte said even after the lawsuits are filed, teachers would continue to strike although he conceded that a number of teachers was trickling back to work due to government’s decision to slash their salaries once they are off the job without a justifiable reason. He made it clear that the union would in no way seek to pressure those educators who have opted to return to their classrooms and acknowledged their solidarity. “We say to those members who are forced because the bullying tactics to go back to school; we have not beaten you down in the past, we will not beat you down in the future,” he said.

GTUC General Secretary Lincoln Lewis said the Ministry of Education’s decision to scrap the check-off of union dues would be challenged because each teacher, rather than the GTU, had authorised the deduction and remittance of their membership dues to their bargaining agent. “What you have decided (is) that you and the union have a problem and you’re saying that my check-off, you aren’t going to do it anymore. Te contract is between me and my employer. If I didn’t sign, you won’t have deducted the money for union dues so the contract is between the two of us,” he told reporters, putting himself in place of a teacher.

Though there is a pending High Court case on collective bargaining by the GPSU, Mr Lewis said another would be filed because “the government is obstinate, we have to fight them on all fronts”. “It enhances the struggle. You see when you allow one union to  fight out there, over the years the government has trampled that union… Now, a multiple number of unions are going on the same issue to fight them,” he said. Citing last year’s meeting between President Irfaan Ali and a select group of teachers at State House and the Guyanese leader’s promise to offer a good welfare package of teachers, the GTU President said those approaches were “worrying” because the government seemed bent on ignoring the union.

While the Ministry of Education has remained deafeningly silent about how many teachers would lose pay in March, 2024 salaries,  he estimated that at least 6,000 teachers would take home less monies for being off the job. Mr Lyte could not immediately guarantee a 100 percent payment of lost income to all teachers who were Tuesday on Day 7 of their industrial action. “We have to get the number of teachers who have been out there, the date, the number of days and look at that because even though you have had the strike over the last seven days, persons may have (gone on) strike for two days, some people for all seven so that has got to be looked at for us to determine what it will be and based on that, we would be able to determine whether we can give a 100, 60, 50, 20 whatever it is,” he told reporters.  Mr Lyte said the GTU had been gathering data on how many teachers were on strike.

The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) participated in the two-hour long meeting at the GTUC’s headquarters, Woolford Avenue, but  the GTUC General Secretary and the GTU President said that, while the public service union remained in solidarity with the teachers, its executive would have to decide whether to join the industrial unrest. GPSU Vice President Dawn Gardiner declined to speak with the media as she left the GTUC.

“The issue of calling out members: each union will have to talk to their executive to really determine what they can do,” Mr Lewis said. GTUC Executive members, he said would be joining the GTU’s picket line.

Initially, the strike was for 10 days, but GTU President Lyte said the strike would continue indefinitely until the government is forced to go to the table for collective bargaining to consider the teachers’ proposals. He noted that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education ignored the GTU’s formal request  last Friday for discussions. “As far as we know we are preparing to indicate that our strike will continue indefinitely and, therefore, while all of this going on, we are still open to dialogue,” he said. The GTU, he said, proposed a draft terms of resumption.

He  said the future strategy would see a number of teachers staggering their presence on the picket line rather than being there everyday.