Public Service Union commends Teachers Union’s Industrial Action

The GPSU recognises the grounds upon which the GTU was forced to take industrial action, is in keeping with the enshrined constitutional rights of workers in Guyana, to uphold the Constitution. The Preamble to Guyana’s Constitution provides that “it is the duty of the people to forge a system of governance that promotes concerted effort and broad-based participation in national decision-making in order to develop a viable economy, and a harmonious community based on democratic values, social justice, fundamental human rights, and the rule of law.”

In keeping with its obligation under the Constitution of Guyana, the Trade Union Recognition Act which provides for good faith negotiation, and its Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Government, the GTU in its efforts to forge a system of governance as envisage by the supreme law, would have directed a number of letters, and calls to the Ministry of Education, to address the basic needs of the nation’s educators through the collective bargaining process.

Contrarily, the government purportedly nullified the collective bargaining process by reneging on their legal obligations to enter into collective bargaining in good faith, and proceeded to unilaterally impose in budgets including budget 2024 meagre benefits. These benefits fail to alleviate the economic constraints faced by public sector workers, including teachers, who have commendable initiated industrial actions to earn their merited improvements in remuneration and other conditions of service, which we are satisfied beyond all doubts are affordable, feasible, and can be sustained having regard to the trillion dollar cap of budget 2024 and the exponential growth in the economy.

The GPSU reiterates that collective bargaining is a fundamental constitutional right of every worker pursuant to article 147(3) of the Constitution of Guyana. Further, the State of Guyana at all material times was obligated under international law to accede to the request of teachers to meet at the bargaining table pursuant to Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which sets basic principles for making collective bargaining work for workers, employers and society.

The GPSU expresses alarm that the Ministry of Labour, which ought to be poised with impartiality under these circumstances, and especially considering its mandate under the Labour Act to maintain a stable industrial climate, would have declared the commendable industrial actions by the hard working teachers to be illegal. The Ministry of Labour’s posture in relation to the current situation facing teachers, brings one to recollect the 1999 strike, where the said Ministry was forced to relinquish its role to mediate a settlement to civil society organisations including the Private Sector, Bar Association, and Council of Churches inter alia.  

The GPSU recognises that the only illegality under these circumstances, is the continued unilateral imposition of amendments to the conditions of service of public sector workers, and the denial of their duly constituted Unions to participate in national decision making, decisions that by and large affects their daily affairs and economic realities.

It is an unconstitutional, illegal, and unconscionable conduct on the part of government, and its Ministry of Education to make policy measures in the form of the budget, and thereafter enacting it into law, contrary to the constitutional requirement for collective bargaining. Further, the GPSU recognizes that the industrial action by teachers, is founded in an unaddressed state of economic duress being felt by public sector workers across Guyana due to growing inequality, and a widening gap between the rich and the working poor.

Finally, the Ministry of Education on February 6, 2024 threatened to cripple the GTU by not deducting dues paid by teachers to the GTU. The GPSU wishes to remind the Ministry of Education yet again, that it is its legal obligation to make the necessary deductions, and remit same to the GTU as long as the Union enjoys recognition as the bargaining agent for teachers. We stand in solidarity with the GTU, and teachers across Guyana.