While the Guyana Government says it cannot negotiate teachers’ salary increases for years prior to 2024, Alliance for Change (AFC) Executive Member and Opposition Parliamentarian, Catherine Hughes believes it can. According to her, it is merely a matter of upholding fairness and equity.
The former Telecommunications Minister registered her party’s dissatisfaction with the collapsing of talks earlier this week, when the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) left the negotiation table after the government said it will only haggle for salary increases for the year 2024 and onwards.
The GTU said that it’s proposal for increases are specifically for the period 2019 to 2023. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) took the reins of government in 2020. This means that the GTU is demanding retroactive pay from the PPP/C for two years that fell under the David Granger government of which Hughes was a minister.
The PPP/C government, through the Education Ministry, has made it clear that there will be financial implications for retroactive increases pre-2024, due to the limitations of the budget cycle.
Several days ago, the government’s chief legal advisor, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, said that “what is passed is passed”.
“The reason is more commonsensical than anything else; the government operates in a budgetary cycle. What is passed is passed. The government has no budgetary resources to increase wages for years that are bygone.
The government can negotiate in good faith in relation to future increases,” Nandlall said during his recently aired, “Issues in the News” programme.
But Hughes begs to differ.
“To suggest that the budget cannot accommodate the retroactive payments while only yesterday the government withdrew some $250 million US dollars from the Natural Resource Fund without adequate accountability, is not only a gross betrayal of trust but highlights the lack of concern this government continues to display towards its citizens whom it claims to care about – but actions speak louder than words.”
It should be noted however that the said US$250M was already appropriated for in the $1.146 trillion dollar budget passed earlier this year. Several other withdrawals are scheduled this year which will take the total withdrawals to US$1.586 B in oil revenues that will support the 2024 budget. Those funds which form part of the 2024 budget were assigned to other priorities, well before talks on teachers’ salary increases had intensified.
She said that despite Justice Sandil Kissoon’s order mandating arbitration to resolve issues stemming from the recent strike, the country still finds itself in a dangerous position. This dispute comes against the backdrop of students preparing to sit examinations that are crucial to their academic journey.
“It seems this government thinks it is above the law and will look for any loophole to get its way without genuinely considering the plight of the people while some sport Louis Vuitton bags,” Hughes said.
The Member of Parliament noted that the government is refusing to consider the years 2019 to 2023 in the settlement, citing Covid-19 as justification. But this, according to the AFC member, is “utter nonsense”.
She argued, “Firstly, Covid did not become a major health crisis issue until early 2020 and more so this stance is deeply flawed because it overlooks the tireless efforts of our educators during the pandemic.”
She added that despite unprecedented challenges, teachers exhibited remarkable resilience, adapting and innovating to ensure that learning continued.
“To dismiss their efforts and deny them fair compensation based on this pretext is not only unjust but fundamentally undermines the principles of fairness and equity.”
Hughes further added that cost of living has been on the rise since the pandemic, noting that the government cannot continue to remain detached from reality.
“[I]t (government) cannot come to terms with the fact that in order for our teachers to continue to serve their salaries have to be adjusted as costs go up. Inflation spares no one, and our teachers, like all citizens, felt its impact acutely,” she said.
