The Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers' Union have failed to reach agreement on a chairman for the arbitration panel to adjudicate on increases for teachers' salaries for 2002.
The failure to reach an agreement now means that the Ministry of Labour can select a candidate for the chairmanship without the approval of the GTU and the Ministry of Education.
With a deadlock declared between the two parties at a meeting held at the Ministry of Labour boardroom in Brickdam yesterday morning, the GTU in a release charged: "The ministry never intended to agree on any of the names submitted but was waiting instead for a deadlock to be declared so the Ministry of Labour can name the individual".
The last two names submitted by the GTU for consideration were attorneys-at-law Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan. The other names submitted by the GTU were Justice Rudolph Harper, Justice Winston Moore, Harold Davis Snr, Archie Moore and Phillip Walcott. The education ministry's nominees were Dr Gobind Ganga, John Seeram, Leila Ramson, Robeson Benn, Vidyanand Persaud and Hubert Rodney.
The union said, too, that when the two parties met yesterday and were ready to affix their signatures to the terms of reference document, Chief Labour Officer, Mohamed Akeel, thought it prudent to find out if the nominee of the education ministry was available to sit on the arbitration panel. These nominees are Professor Harold Lutchman to represent the GTU's interest and finance consultant Winston Jordan, the ministry's. Their names were submitted over four weeks ago. The GTU said that efforts to locate Jordan by telephone to verify his availability were futile. This resulted in the rescheduling of the signing of the terms of reference document to Monday at 9 am.
The GTU feels that yesterday's actions were a deliberate ploy to thwart the arbitration process through the use of delaying tactics. The release said that the Akeel did not see it pertinent to pose the same question to the GTU.
The union charged that the powers that be continue to take teachers in the public education system for a ride while the system continues to deteriorate, raising many questions.
The negotiations for increases in teachers' salaries have been dragging on since October last year when the focus was on increases for 2002. It has since shifted to 2003. The GTU has rejected the government's offer of a 4.8% increase in salaries for teachers for this year.