Even though the Government of Guyana has already announced an increase for public servants, it is still to decide on a raise in salary for teachers. Minister of State Joseph Harmon has said that the negotiations are largely different between the two and gave all assurances that teachers are not being sidelined.
Harmon said that the last agreement with teachers was a multi-year one and this new process involved the same type of negotiations. It therefore means that several issues have to be streamlined for that agreement to take effect.
According to the Minister, he had a brief discussion with the General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald, during which he gave assurances that negotiations will continue.
Teachers have, for almost one and a half years, been waiting on Government to finalise the agreement in regard to increases in salaries and other benefits.
The last multi-year agreement between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the GTU came to an end in 2015, and the GTU has since been working to finalise a new agreement.
McDonald had told the media that the GTU had hoped that negotiations would have commenced early and a new agreement would have been reached by now.
