GEORGETOWN, Guyana - The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) Friday urged teachers to return to their jobs by Wednesday next week so that the conciliation talks that led to the end of the 70-day strike on Friday could resume “as soon as possible”.
Representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union emerge from their deliberations on Friday (GTU Photo)“Teachers are expected to return by Tuesday…on Wednesday the union commences conciliation. Now if you don’t return in those two days the conciliation cannot start and the earlier the conciliation starts the better it is for our teachers who have suffered, have gone through a lot of mental health issues and the union is cognizant of that,” GTU president Dr. Mark Lyte said in live statement on the GTU’s Facebook page.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand in a post on the social media platform, Facebook, confirmed that the teachers will end the ongoing strike and resume work within two working days.
Lyte said that the situation has been a “very difficult time for all of us” across Guyana and thanked the membership for standing with the union “when no one lese stood” including the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) and Education International.
According to the “Agreement on Resumption” document signed by GTU and Ministry of Education Officials, “there shall be no victimization by either party” as well as “there shall be no loss of service for any teacher/educator”.
In addition, the agreement stipulates “there shall be an end to the strike and full resumption of work by all teachers/educators within two working days” and that the teachers and educators will return to their respective positions held before the strike.
In addition, there “shall beno transfers upon resumption” and that ‘the status quo shall prevail subject to any ruling which may emanate from extant legal proceedings between the two parties”.
There is also agreement that the resumption of the talks “shall be held in accordance with the existing 1990 Memorandum of Agreement”.
The union had been seeking a 20 per cent interim salary increase or a GUY$150,000 (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) one-off -payment to all teachers as a condition for calling off the strike, but Lyte said the teachers had eventually agreed to forgo any financial demands to make way for conciliation.
“During the lapse between June 10th and now, we went back to our membership to state the position that the government has adopted and the members have indicated to us that they are prepared to allow the process to be followed minus the interim payment or the cash grant,” he said.
Lyte said Friday’s signing of the Terms of Resumption was as a result of a new consultations.
The union wants government to negotiate salary increases on a proposal for 2019 to 2023 but the government continues to maintain that pay negotiations must be for a multi-year agreement beginning 2024.
“Both sides are committed. As you can see, one of the clauses says that we are prepared to negotiate in good faith so let’s see what that good faith will be,” he said, noting “key to this would be the clause that allows us to return in the new week to have conciliation on the time-frame and also both parties have agreed to be bound by the 1990 Grievance Procedure Memorandum and that stipulates the timelines for all the processes”.
GTU general secretary, Coretta Mc Donald, said she hopes that the two sides could reach agreement before schools reopen in September.
“While we were going back and forth, the nation’s children were suffering all this time and that was our concern. While we are concerned about our teachers’ welfare, the nation’s children were suffering,” she added.
Teachers began their industrial action on February 5, in support of their union’s demands for higher salaries and duty-free concessions, among other benefits.
Following a court mediated process in March, talks between the Ministry of Education and GTU resumed. But the discussions came to a halt when the ministry indicated that there was no fiscal space to cater for increases for the period 2019 -2023. Increases for 2024 and future years were put for consideration instead.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, President Irfaan Ali said there was the possibility that the industrial action would end soon.
“There has been a lot of ongoing work, discussions in relation to the resumption of work and also the issues raised by teachers.
“I don’t want to go in any extended way in response to this. From the most recent feedback I have received, there seems to be some movement and in relation to getting to an initial agreement on terms that will see this situation resumed to some amount of normalcy,” President Ali told a news conference.
