Guyana gov’t warns teachers who strike that they will not be paid

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government has warned teachers who are on the second day of a nationwide industrial action on Tuesday that they would not be paid for participating in what it termed an illegal strike.

“The Ministry of Education has accepted the opinion of the Ministry of Labour that it is illegal to pay teachers who do not report for duty without a legitimate reason,” the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

The ministry said that through its statistical analysis, most teachers had ignored the call by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) for them to participate in the “illegal” strike on Monday, promising that those who reported for duty and delivered lessons “will be recognised” for their dedication towards ensuring the nation's children receive the education they rightfully deserve.

The Ministry of Education declined to provide a figure on the number of educators who responded to the strike call and the GTU said at least 58.16 per cent of teachers stayed away from schools on the first day of the industrial action.

GTU president Dr Mark Lyte dismissed the threat of teachers' salaries and wages being withheld as a result of their participation in the industrial action, saying “We hold our ground that the strike is legal so let's see.”

Chief Education Officer of the Ministry of Education, Saddam Hussain, said teachers who locked up schools would be recommended for disciplinary action by the Teaching Service Commission or the School Boards Secretariat.

In its statement, the Ministry of Education said it was “appalled at the illegal locking of schools by head teachers and the barring of students and teachers from entering some school buildings.”

It said it strongly condemned threats meted out to teachers through incendiary voice notes, text messages, phone calls, and through cyberbullying.

“The Ministry reiterates that the threat of the union and its acolytes that teachers who do not turn up to strike will not be on 'the benefits list' is empty. Particularly, the threat to withhold duty-free concessions cannot be realised as the Ministry is now administering that process.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said that “those students who are most affected” by the industrial action would be academically engaged via a number of learning platforms and that educational content across grades and particularly for exam classes is available on the Ministry of Education's website, the Guyana Learning Channel and its recently launched app, EDPal as well as on the radio, EdYou FM.

“These are timetabled and schedules of topics and times are published on the individual pages.”

On Monday, GTU secretary general Coretta McDonald, said “we submitted a proposal since 2020 and this is 2024. But what we've recognised they've been doing over the years is that they've been pulling from the conditions we've been asking for, tweaking them and my good friend [the Chief Education Officer] Saddam Hussain is putting out all kinds of things suggesting that the GTU is asking for 41 things and they've already been satisfied 21 or 27 things, something like that”.

Last year, the government ignored repeated calls for collective bargaining and instead engaged a cross-section of teachers to hear their grievances and requests.

Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, in a statement last December, announced an across-the-board salary increase of 6.5 per cent that will benefit over 54,000 public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services and government pensioners and will place an additional GUY$7.5 billion in disposable income annually in the hands of these employees.

Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.