Vice President (VP) Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has responded to the opposition’s criticism of the recently signed multi-year salary increase agreement for teachers, labeling their comments as hypocritical and inconsistent with their own track record.
On Wednesday, the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education signed an agreement that outlines a 10% salary increase for 2024, followed by 8% in 2025 and 9% in 2026, alongside several non-salary benefits. However, this agreement drew condemnation from the opposition bloc, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
During his press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo lambasted the opposition for labeling the 10% increase as “insulting” to teachers. “They issued a statement that the agreement is a bad one. Now this is APNU [saying] that the 10% is insulting to teachers,” Jagdeo noted.
He reminded that during the APNU+AFC tenure in office, the now opposition never provided a salary increase for teachers that exceeded 10%.
“They wanted the industrial unrest and the bad blood to continue because they felt it would serve them politically, they don’t care about teachers,” Jagdeo said, as he labelled the criticisms from the opposition camp as disingenuous.
According to the Vice President, he made checks that showed that from 2015 to 2019, teachers never received a salary increase over 10%.
He said in 2015 teachers received a one-off $25,000 bonus.
“In 2016, the salary increases ranged from 1% to 10%, 10% was maximum for people who are earning under $99,000 a month…So, if you’re earning like maybe $200,000, you then got a 6% or something like that,” Jagdeo said. He added that in 2017, the increase was 0.5 to 8%. In 2018, it was 0.5 to 7%, and in 2019, it was 8.5 to 9%.
Moreover, the Vice President elaborated on the financial implications of the proposed salary increase under the current government, contrasting it with the cost under the previous administration.
He said that if APNU’s 10% increase in 2016 was across the board on a $15 billion wage bill, it would have cost the government $1.5 billion, whereas the current 10% increase on a much larger wage bill will cost $4 billion.
Jagdeo stated that because government has increased the number of teachers as well as the salary scale, the wage bill is now $40 billion per year.
“So, what would a 10% of $40 billion be, its $4 billion…and if they have found our 10% insulting, how much more insulting was their 10% which was the maximum wage increase throughout the early years they were in office, how much more insulting was it?” the Vice President questioned.
Furthermore, Jagdeo accused the opposition of attempting to undermine the government’s efforts for political gain.
“They’re back at it again, promising everything under the sun but it was super insulting, shameless to criticize a 10% now, when $4 billion more will go into the hands of the teachers…,” he stated.
