A meeting on Monday between top brass of the ministry and the GTU initiated by the Ministry of Labour to iron out differences in the terms of resumption to end the strike resulted in a stalemate. Previous meetings also resulted in stalemate.

At a news conference in his office yesterday, Education Minister, Dr. Henry Jeffrey said the union should let its members go back to work and begin to negotiate in good faith for salary increases for 2003 and beyond.

He made it clear that although the ministry is not prepared to discuss salary increases for 2002, it is prepared to negotiate more pay for teachers from this year and upwards - a position which the union said it cannot accept.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Hydar Ally, who was also at the news conference, said the ministry is hoping that something fruitful can emerge from today's meeting which can allow for an amicable resolution of the dispute.

"We are hopeful that out of these discussions something can emerge. We are always open to discussion and we are very anxious to get this thing over with," he said.

The GTU called a limited two-day a week strike since March 6 to back its demands for the resolution of a package for increased salaries and improved working conditions and last week intensified the industrial action into a full strike.

"We are not against any striking or trade unions (but) I believe that there are certain essential services that should be maintained even when the entire process might not be considered an essential service", Jeffrey told reporters.

He also noted that based on information the ministry has received from persons around the country, more than 90% of teachers for the CXC and SSEE classes were at school yesterday.

For this, he thanked the teachers and education officials for coming out at this critical time with exams around the corner.

Both Jeffrey and Ally confirmed that the SSEE exams are still on and will be conducted on April 16-17, 2003.

In reiterating the ministry's case, Jeffrey pointed out that the GTU claimed that his ministry was wrong in paying teachers for 2002 without some agreement with it. Therefore, it will not discuss any other issue until some agreement is reached for 2002, the minister said.

He asserted that since most will agree that the ministry did not act illegally in making the payment, the claim and resultant strike action of the GTU rest upon the union's position that the ministry, somehow or the other, acted unreasonably.

"For sometime now, the Ministry of Education has contended that, in the context of a deliberate union strategy of delay, it acted lawfully and reasonably in paying for 2002 without an agreement with the union.

"We have argued that having come to realise that we were under pressure from teachers and the budget office to pay by the end of the financial year, the union's strategy was to delay the reconciliation process until payment was made and then to demand we go to arbitration," he explained.

According to him, the union's hope was that the arbitrator would then add something more to what the ministry had already paid.

"Of course, although the ministry knew it had to pay before the close of the financial year, it had no intention of paying and then going to arbitration," the Education Minister posited.

In this regard, he said where the union erred was in "not properly scrutinising our Collective Labour Agreement which does not make arbitration mandatory".

He said that when this was brought to the attention of the union, it was most surprised.

"Rather than accept its error in good faith, the GTU has misled its members into a costly strike," Jeffrey added.

Meanwhile, the GTU staged another march in the city yesterday to back its demands that led to the strike.

Members of the union last week marched through several city streets as part of the industrial action.

Labour Minister Dr. Dale Bisnauth, last week established an Advisory Committee in accordance with the Labour Act, to bring a resolution to the differences and to make necessary recommendations.

Dr. Martin Boodhoo, former Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana is Chairman of the committee.