Vice President Blames Political Intereference For Teachers Rejecting Latest Government Offer

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is accusing union members with political interest of sabotaging the negotiations for salary increases for teachers after the government’s latest offer was rejected earlier this week.

actontGuyana teachers during their protest action (File Photo)Jagdeo, speaking at his weekly news conference, specifically identified the general secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and others, for putting their political interest above that of the teachers.

He told reporters that had the GTU agreed to the latest offer from the government, teachers would have benefited from approximately GUY$12 billion (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents)  in salary increases  over the next three years of the agreement.

He said this sum did not include the non-salary measures that covered scholarships, concessions and allowances.

“We have spent nearly GUY$40 billion on wages and salaries for teachers per year. Over the [next] three years, when you look at it cumulatively, that will be about maybe just over GUY$12 billion…

“The offer for the three-year package is to increase wages and salaries alone for the teachers would be about GUY$12 billion in the next three years. That is how much more teachers will get…leaving out the other adjustments we’re making,” Jagdeo said, adding that the Irfaan Ali government had always intended and will continue to pursue satisfactory measures collaboratively.

He said while the statements circulated by the GTU president, Dr Mark Lyte, confirmed that the union’s General Council had agreed to the government’s three-year proposal, Mc Donald sought to sabotage the joint effort by publicly condemning and then rejecting the proposal.

Jagdeo said that the rejection does not represent the original decision to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), adding “If you claim you have 6,000 members of 10,000 members, then did you formally put this to the membership?”

Jagdeo then accused McDonald of receiving and carrying out instructions from the political opposition.

“The General Council of the Union had made a decision to accept this offer and Coretta McDonald, taking instructions from Congress Place (headquarters of the main opposition People’s National Congress), went and sabotaged this [agreement].

He said McDonald “worked up people, got in touch with a large number of people, other teachers to write in, put it in their WhatsApp groups that they rejected this,” he said, adding “this doesn’t constitute a formal decision by the membership. The formal decision was made by the General Council of the union.”

“The General Council made a decision, and she comes along. They (McDonald and others) are taking instruction from Congress Place. She is a politician from APUN’s camp. They don’t want the issue resolved with teachers, so she sabotages the General Council and she gets the headline as though she is speaking on behalf of the union, but misleading the newspapers,” Jagdeo told reporters.

Jagdeo told reporters that McDonald should not be quoted as the definitive voice of the GTU and said he remains hopeful that good sense prevails and the teachers would accept the latest offer from the government.

McDonald has not  yet responded to the  accusation made by Jagdeo, but earlier this  week, she told reporters that teachers would reject a 10 per cent salary increase insist on nothing less than a 25 per cent hike.

The union has been demanding a 39.5 per cent increase for this year and 30 per cent for the following two years. But the union said that the government is offering 10 per cent for this year, eight per cent in 2025 and nine per cent for 2026.

Earlier this year, thousands of teachers participated in a 75-day strike to demand collective bargaining for financial matters. The High Court later ruled in favour of the union, and the Guyana Court of Appeal is yet to hear government’s appeal.

The GTU and the Ministry of Education eventually returned to the bargaining table, after demands for an interim pay hike or a one-off cash grant of GUY$150,000 per teacher pending the outcome of negotiations were rejected by the government.

McDonald said Monday that teachers have long indicated that the union should accept no less than a 25 per cent salary increase offer. She said accepting a 10 per cent salary increase for teachers would go against the mandate given by the teachers to the Union.

“Our teachers would have given us a mandate that we accept nothing less than one, they said double figures; and they went further to say, it shouldn’t be anything less than 25 per cent. And they are saying that based on these facts: cost of living is way above their heads; two, inflation; and three, because the government would have forced us to throw aside our 2019-2023 proposal, they are thinking they should be highly compensated,” McDonald said.

She told the online publication, NEWS SOURCE that teachers have also pointed out that nurses and doctors as well as members of the joint services, were all provided with comprehensive financial packages.

She said that the GTU General Council met last weekend to discuss the latest government offer.

“They did agree to approve that (10 percent) and I think it was based on the fact of how it was put over to them with regards to the 10 per cent offering, and of course you know, our agreement doesn’t only deal with the salary increases, it deals with several other issues.

“And so, I think it is because of what was said to General Council they agreed that while we were going to have several other non-salaried benefits, that it was okay to accept the 10 per cent. But when that issue was further broken down to them, to say look, this aspect of the non-salaried issue was not agreed on, this one was not agreed on, this one is still yet to be confirmed, this one is still yet to be discussed, General Council members then started retracting, retracting,” McDonald said.