Teachers pay talks collapse – GTU

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 March 2024, 12:05 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on Tuesday said that pay negotiations with the Ministry of Education collapsed after government refused to consider the 2019-2023 proposed multi-year agreement.

“Talks have collapsed because , as it is, there is no plan for a future meeting,” GTU President Dr Mark Lyte said. He related that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, for the first time, attended the negotiations and said that government did not budget for salary increases for those years.

Dr Lyte said the Ministry of Education asked the GTU to submit a multi-year proposal from 2024 going forward.

The GTU President said the union would be seeking legal advice to return to court or to file a fresh case.

Another option, he said, that was open to the union was to refer the salary dispute to arbitration. “That would be the best recourse at this time for the matter to be sent to arbitration, providing that it is agreed on,” he said.  The GTU-Ministry of Education Collective Bargaining Agreement provides that both sides must agree to go to arbitration.

The GTU President expressed reluctance going to the Chief Labour Officer of the Ministry of Labour. The Chief Labour Officer had several weeks ago said the dispute did not meet the threshold for conciliation talks.

The union wants a 25 percent salary increase for 2019 and 20 percent for each year from 2020 to 2023.