High Court: GTU official admits financial issues were discussed

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 13:42 by Denis Chabrol

Vice President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Julian Cambridge on Wednesday admitted that financial matters were discussed with the government.

Representing the government, lawyer Dharshan Ramdhani, at the outset, established that the previous multi-year agreement between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the government remains in force until a new agreement is reached.

GTU Vice President Julian Cambridge, under cross-examination, agreed with the lawyer in that regard.

On the thorny issue of collective bargaining, the GTU official it was partly accurate that the Guyana government paid some increase in salaries.  To that, Mr Ramdhani told Mr Cambridge that he never said that in his reply, only stating then that there was no collective bargaining.

Mr Cambridge conceded that several areas including duty free concessions, housing revolving fund, and debunching of salaries according scales, the granting of scholarships for teachers that would eventually result in increased salaries were all financial matters.

The GTU Vice President also acknowledged from the witness stand that traveling and special teaching allowances, increased salaries for some categories of teachers were also financial matters.

The government lawyer asked if a number of the benefits that were being requested and given to to members of the union. In response, the GTU Vice President those were not for non-members.

With regards to 50 requested scholarships, Mr Cambridge said those were being provided except that the teachers would benefit financially only if the Guyana Online Academy of Learning graduates had those programmes accredited. 3,800 GOAL scholarships were made available in 2024 talks between GTU and the Education Ministry.

The GTU Vice President said he could not recall how many meetings there were between the Union and the Ministry of Education between 2020 to present. 

He said the meetings were not discuss personal matters but to deal with terms and conditions of employment as well as policies