Ministry of Education stops deducting teachers’ union dues over GTU’s “conduct” ; GTU calls it union dues “union busting”

Last Updated on Tuesday, 6 February 2024, 9:33 by Denis Chabrol

Deeming the now two-day old teachers’ strike “unlawful”, the Ministry of Education has officially informed the Guyana Teachers’ Union that it would stop deducting union dues from teachers’ salaries.

After detailing its views that the “unlawful and politicised” strike was exacerbated by a barrage of threats to teachers who opted not to join the strike, the Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary, Shannielle Hoosein-Outar told GTU President Dr Mark Lyte in a letter dated February 6, 2023 said “in light of your aforesaid conduct the government of Guyana can no longer provide this agency service.”

“With immediate effect, the Government of Guyana shall cease to perform the functions of an agent of the union and will no longer deduct union dues from the wages and salaries of teachers and remit same to the union,” she said.  The Ministry of Education cited a High Court decision in August 2010 in a case of the Public Service Union vs Nanda Gopaul that states that the withdrawal of the deduction of union dues did not mean that the dues were not collectible but that that union was now tasked with collecting such dues itself.

By the Ministry of Education’s figure of just about 4,500 unionised teachers, the GTU will now have to make arrangements to collect an estimated GY$3,150,000 in union dues per month. If all of the 13,652 teachers are unionised and pay their dues,  the GTU should collect at least GY$9,556,400 per month.

But Dr Mark Lyte said despite that attempt to weaken the union, the strike would continue indefinitely to force the Ministry of Education into negotiating increased salaries and allowances. “It’s intended to do that because it’s tantamount to what is called union busting. It’s intent for workers not to have a representative voice or a body to represent them and imagine if the union collapses, it gives way for the government to do as they please to the teaching population of this country,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

The GTU boss accused the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration of pushing Guyana into a “full-blown dictatorial state.” He reiterated that the strike would continue indefinitely. “We’re in this for the long haul,” he said.

Permanent Secretary Hoosein-Outar said the strike continues to be “unlawful and inimical to the welfare of our students, teachers and the public interest.” Noting that the Ministry of Education and the GTU had already reached agreement on a number of demand by the bargaining agent, she said the “unlawful industrial action has become wholly politicised.” “An opposition member of parliament appears to be its chief architect,” she said in clear reference to GTU General Secretary Coretta Mc Donald who represents A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

The Ministry of Education accused the GTU of using incendiary voice notes, text messages, phone calls and cyber bullying via social media to teachers who exercised their constitutional right not to participate in this unlawful strike. Th union was also cited by government for “racist sentiments and ethnically divisive rhetoric have also permeated the actions of the GTU. This Government will never tolerate any attempt to divide of our people along racial lines.”