Ministry offers higher paid teachers 1% ‘top up’ for 2002
- ‘Out of order,’ says union
Stabroek News
June 1, 2003
The Ministry of Education has proposed an additional one per cent increase for the 2002 salaries of higher paid teachers.
These teachers in the higher categories received a five per cent increase in January so this would bring their total increase for 2002 to 6 per cent.
But the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) is emphatic that a 1% increase “is definitely out of order.”
GTU General Secretary Avril Crawford said after the Friday meeting that nothing of consequence had been taking place except that the sides were “going over the same old things.”
She said Permanent Secretary, Hydar Ally had said that the ministry was trying to make up a one per cent increase on the balance of the $55 million government had offered.
The sum of $40M is to be used to bring the salaries of the teachers in the lower categories on par with that of the minimum wage in the traditional public service. The remaining $15M is to be used as a basis of negotiations for increases in the salaries of higher paid teachers.
Crawford said that when the $15M was divided, teachers in the higher categories would receive less than one per cent.
What the ministry was proposing, she said, was to increase the remainder to 1 per cent.
Ally said the two parties were still talking and did not want to go into details as another round of discussions was due on Thursday.
He said that the GTU was still stuck in the 2002 mode but the talks were cordial.
Teachers took strike action in March after talks between the ministry and the GTU broke down and the ministry had unilaterally paid teachers increases of 5% for the higher categories to 15% for the lower categories.
