GTUC makes application to Court to join Teachers’ Case

Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) General Secretary Lincoln Lewis, through Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, has applied to the Court to join the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) struggle for collective bargaining to be respected and upheld.

The Bharrat Jagdeo/Irfaan Ali government over the years is seen as gradually eroding the pillars of good governance in Guyana. According to Lewis and Forde it is time that workers of Guyana unite to stop the decline in workers gains and will to struggle that are historically known to shape our country’s development thrust.

Lewis and Forde will further speak to the case at a press conference scheduled for Monday, March 4 @ 1:30 p.m at the Critchlow Labour College.

Guyana’s public school teachers have been on strike since February 5. The strike is the result of Government’s refusal to engage the GTU in collective bargaining since 2020. The Union in August 2020 submitted a multi-year proposal on wages/salary and working conditions to the Ministry of Education. The Union said its proposal was re-submitted in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Meanwhile, rather than meet with the Teachers Union, the government has insulted teachers, threatened to deduct salary for the days any teacher is absent from work, and wrote the Union stating it will no longer deduct union dues from the teachers’ salary and remit to the Union. On February 22, 2024 Judge Sandil Kissoon issued conservatory orders blocking the government from implementing its decision until the case brought by the Union on February 13, 2024 is determined. That case is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday March 20, 2024.

Last Wednesday, February 28, after Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussain flouted the Court’s orders he was hauled before Justice Kissoon, where he was reprimanded and apologised to the Court. The Judge has since appointed a mediator to work with the Union and Government on the industrial impasse which enters the fifth week today.