President David Granger yesterday said that the report from the High Level Task Force, which he helped set up last year to resolve the impasse between his administration and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) over wages and non-salary benefits, was found to be “deficient” by Cabinet and negotiations must go back to the drawing board.
“The existing report should not be regarded as a sound basis for proceeding because critical information was not supplied to the committee,” Granger told reporters at the Ministry of the Presidency, where he held his third press conference with the local media since taking office in 2015.
After six months of negotiations, the Task Force had agreed to grant teachers a 40% increase on 2015 salaries and a 5% increase thereafter for 2017 to 2020, among other benefits. Government has, however, told teachers that it can offer only $700 million for increases in the 2018 fiscal year, a sum which amounts to little more than a 5% increase. While imposing increases in the absence of collective bargaining in recent years, the current government has said it was doing so without prejudice to the ongoing negotiations with unions.
