Salary increase for public school teachers

Minister of Education and representatives of the GTU addressing the media after Wednesday’s meeting.

“They can sleep easy tonight knowing that something good is expected to come”. These were the words of General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union, Ms. Coretta McDonald, when asked to comment on the outcome of a meeting with representatives of the Education Ministry. Based on information filtered to the media earlier this week, the meeting should have seen the union accepting or rejecting a revised salary package offered by government to public school teachers. At a meeting between the two sides, a revised offer was proposed to teachers. This translated to a 10 percent pay hike for 2016 and a further eight percent for 2018. The government also proposed a 350 million US dollars debunching payout to teachers.

A follow-up meeting was held on Monday between the two sides in the presence of President David Granger who had shared his belief that the teachers’ salary matter will be resolved by Friday. At the end of the just over two hours long meeting yesterday, both sides were calling their discussion “a work in progress.” However, McDonald, like President Granger, shared the union’s optimism that “we are looking for a final resolution.” But both parties upon coming out of the meeting were reluctant to answer other questions posed by media representatives about the meeting.

They both agreed that a joint statement issued by the Ministry expressed their view. Copies of the statement were shared to media operatives even as Minister of Education, Ms. Nicolette Henry, said, “The statement represents in its entirety how the discussion went.” Highlighting that the meeting discussed proposals for salaries, the statement detailed that “It was a working meeting where new information was provided that was not discussed nor considered prior to the offers made earlier.”

(Kaieteurnews)