The Civil Procedure Rules provide that a Court may, on its own initiative, order any or all parties to a proceeding to participate in a mediation. This is the first high profile court-ordered mediation and it involves the Government and a major trade union, the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), which is engaged in a nation-wide strike of teachers. Two distinguished lawyers, Edward Luckhoo and Robin Stoby, both Senior Counsel of long standing, have been appointed by Justice Sandil Kissoon to mediate between the Government and the GTU. The proposal for mediation was resisted by Attorney General Anil Nandlall. He argued that there was no dispute, that the parties had met in January and had scheduled another meeting for February, but the GTU had called the strike before the date of the meeting. The Judge nevertheless made the order for the mediation.
