GUYANA | AG Anil Nandlall Feels Teachers Strike political, Rules out Payment for 2019 to 2023 period

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, May 17, 2024 - Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall SC, is adamant that the teachers will not be receiving any salary increase for the  2019-2023 salary negotiation period due to various reasons, including the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on economies worldwide.

The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is demanding a 20 percent interim pay increase before the teacher’s strike is called off to make way for the start of mediation, but the Ministry of Education on Wednesday said the union’s demand amounted to duress.

“We wanted to include an interim payout to teachers before we resume school and have the situation normal so we put on the table an interim percentage increase while we meet to discuss what will be the final numbers,” GTU President Dr Mark Lyte told Demerara Waves media.

AG Nandlall believes that this demand reflects a lack of interest in conciliation and resolving issues beforehand, emphasizing the need for both parties to engage in good faith and adhere to the principles of conciliation.

“In order for the conciliation to even start, you have to go back to work,” Minister Nandlall highlighted on Wednesday as he appeared in an interview with the National Communications Network (NCN).

He pointed out that  “the Union has now imposed upon the conciliation, a regime of demands, which they are saying, must be addressed, before the conciliation even begins. Now, that is in bad faith [and] that is contrary to the principles of conciliation, and may very well be unlawful.”

Nandlall advised that the government cannot grant an increase for the period of 2019-2023 due to various valid reasons, including the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on economies worldwide.

He said  that while many countries were cutting the salaries of its workers, the Guyanese Government continued to pay teachers even when they were not physically present at work.

He added that the teachers  also received consistent salary increases and even benefitted from several interventions and programmes outlined in the government’s fiscal plans for each year.

The Attorney General expressed his belief that the union’s demands for an impossible increase reveal ulterior motives and a lack of seriousness about conciliation, which seeks to create unrest in the education sector

“The mask I think fell off, from the face of the union, when, it went to the table, during this conciliation, and superimposed a series of demands, even before the conciliation starts. And in terms of salary… the mask has come off. This union has illustrated, even to those who were in support of it, that they are not serious about conciliation. They are not serious about resolving, any impasse. This industrial action is not a bona fide, one. It is, influenced, by, other considerations,” he opined.

Additionally, Nandlall raised concerns about the affordability and sustainability of the requested increases, particularly the lack of provisions for retroactive salaries for educators.

He also argued against singling out teachers for salary increases, emphasising the need for fair treatment of all public sector employees as mandated by the Constitution of Guyana.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand has regarded the request as unacceptable and unreasonable, which she believes is set out to derail the process.

The education ministry said “though the union has repeatedly sought to assure Guyanese that the strike was not politically motivated, the education ministry said that due to the current stance by the GTU, it was clear that there were motives other than workers’ welfare that were influencing the industrial unrest. 

“It is clear then that teachers’ welfare is not the paramount consideration for the Guyana Teachers’ Union. Teachers are being used as pawns in a much larger, politically directed plot. This is destructive and sad,” the ministry said.

People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo earlier this month remarked that street protests by People’s National Congress Reform-associated lawyers Darren Wade and Roysdale Forde at the joint GTU-GTUC May Day Rally showed the political undercurrents of the strike.

Teachers in Guyana initiated a second wave of strike actions on May 9, prompting discussions that commenced on May 13 and persisted through May 14. Despite the government’s willingness to discuss teacher salary increases from 2024 onward, the GTU insists on retroactive increases from 2019-2023. 

The government says it will  be appealing High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon’s ruling that the teachers’ salaries should not be deducted following their participation in a five-week strike even as the written judgment is yet to be disseminated.

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