After a four-week-long teachers’ strike that ended through court mediation, the government and the GTU met yesterday for talks and differences have emerged over the period that salary increases should pertain to.
Following two sessions yesterday at the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) said that there had been agreement for salary increases to be discussed for the period 2019 to 2023 but Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussain last night disputed this and said that the government’s original position remains that any multi-year agreement must start from 2024 and not retroactively. Hussain said that the union has proposed discussion of salaries for 2019 to 2023 and this will be discussed. Talks will resume on Tuesday at 9.30 at the ministry’s boardroom.
According to a MoE release, during the meeting, 27 issues were identified by the two teams to be tabled for discussion. Both MoE and GTU agreed on the order in which the matters will be addressed.
