– also 6% for 2025 and 2026
GTU President Mark Lyte (L) and Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry Shannielle Hoosein-Outar after signing the Agreement of Resumption in June 2024 – a process overseen by Chief Labour Officer Dhaneshwar Deonarine (centre)
Despite the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) proposal of a 39.6 per cent across-the-board increase for 2024, the government has reportedly made an initial proposal of 7 per cent on Thursday.
In addition, the government has also proposed a 6 per cent increase for 2025 and 2026 when the union had requested 30 per cent.
Negotiations between the GTU and the Education Ministry continued on Thursday but there has been no agreement from both sides with respect to the proposals. Several non-salary issues were reportedly dealt with but talks on salary increases remain a deadlock.
However, the Union’s president, Mark Lyte told a section of the media that while there is some progress in certain areas, a decision was taken by both sides not to release any information
“Both sides committed to not releasing details on the discussions, but I would say for the most part, our discussion today went very well, and you can see that the members are hopeful, optimistic that in the short term, we will have a signed agreement,” the GTU President told a section of the media after the meeting.
Commenting on the proposals by the government, Lyte stated “The proposal put forward by the Ministry, like I said, several areas they have to go back and get, because when they proposed certain things, the Union might have said, we don’t quite agree with this and those are being reviewed.”
Bilateral talks between the ministry and the union on the new 2024-2026 multi-year agreement commenced on July 11 after months of prolonged industrial action. Earlier in the month, the GTU conceded to government’s proposal that salary increases for teachers should be determined under a new agreement from the current year onward.
The GTU had been pushing for a backdated collective bargaining agreement. But government, through the Education Ministry has maintained that it is fully prepared to work on a multi-year agreement from 2024 and not 2019 as being initially demanded by the union. The GTU subsequently recanted and agreed to negotiate from 2022 onwards – a proposal that was also rejected by government.
The Union has also proposed a performance-based incentive of two per cent per annum to be paid to eligible teachers during the period of the multi-year agreement, with effect from January 1, 2024.
This is in addition to an annual health/risk allowance of $25,000, and monthly internet/mobile data allowance of $10,000 to be paid to all teachers.
Moreover, the body is seeking a termly school’s transportation grant of $150,000 in the case of those operating on the coastland and $300,000 for hinterland/riverain schools or alternately a mode of transport (boat, ATV etc.) to offset the cost of teachers travelling to attend meetings, workshops, orientation sessions, or emergencies at school.
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