| Former presidential candidate for the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) elections and Vice- Chairman of the GTU Sub- group in Plaisance, Milne Seymour, has expressed concern over the delays of a pending multi-year teachers’ agreement which was supposed to have come into effect a few weeks ago.The 2006-2010 agreement between the Ministry of Education and the GTU came to an end late last year. To date,Nike Shox Clearance, there has been no formally accepted new deal. This has caused some agitation among the nation’s teachers and has created some uncertainty as to what the new deal would entail and how soon it would go into effect.Seymour, who has conducted research on the union in the past, pointed to a clause in the 2006-2010 agreement which should have allowed that agreement to be reviewed in 2009. These multi- year agreements,Nike Air Max 97 Silver Bullet, he said, allow for reviews and assessments during the years for which the agreements are enforced. He questioned why that was not done.“An assessment should have been made. In 2007; we had Value Added Tax (VAT) and fuel crisis. We had an opportunity to review the five per cent. Meetings should have been held with the branches”,Air Max 97 For Sale Australia, he said.“You had the whole of 2009 and whole of 2010 to do a comprehensive review of the [2006-2010] agreement. There should have been a mid- term review in 2009. There was enough time for a new agreement to be done.“You had two opportunities, in 2009 and at the end of 2010 when you should have had a new agreement in your hand to submit to Ministry of Education (MOE) for consideration,” Seymour stated.He expressed dissatisfaction at the delay to approve the new deal, which he said should have kicked in weeks ago. He also stated that teachers are concerned with how much they will be paid and that the salary aspect of the new deal with the GTU and MOE should have been forged ahead, leaving the other ‘nitty- gritty’ clauses, which would work themselves out, for later.He noted the time consuming process of creating a collective labour agreement. “A collective labour agreement that employers and union would conclude everything that basically occurs in the life of a teacher.The last comprehensive agreement was done in 1983 under Jean Persico. “It’s time consuming to put together and takes a lot of time to negotiate. You have to agree to everything before it is signed and it is a legally binding agreement, a copy of which is submitted to the Minister of Labour.“When you include a salary agreement with a labour agreement you can have a situation where you might not agree with one issue and the entire deal is held back”, he said. This is responsible, he said, for the delay in an approved deal.He cited an example of small issues like permission to hold meetings, which, if the government does not agree upon,Womens Nike Air Max 270 Coral Stardust Shoes, can hold the entire deal, salary and all, back.“It’s unrealistic for this deal to be negotiated and signed within a month. It is a complex piece of document.”He then commented on the running of branches across the country. He said that Branch Chairmen and officers within branches need to be properly trained in order for agreement to be properly implemented and monitored. He said that teachers need to become aware of each part of the agreement and how it is implemented.Seymour agrees with a two- year salary agreement but it must be properly done. He does not agree with across- the- board increases.“You have different categories of teachers. You need to argue for a living wage. You need to take into consideration rate of inflation,Cheap Air Max Tn Shoes, including inflation rate for food and clothes,Nike Roshe Run Women, since the former agreement includes a clothing allowance”.He also recommends moving the threshold to $40,000 so that teachers get more money in their pockets.“Not enough is done to educate teachers about what is being done; there is very little communication. The union does not even have a working website. It gives way for a whole set of speculation.”The teacher urged thosein authority to look at the salary aspect and get it over with.“Branches are not properly functioning. If we don’t get branches working and ensure that central union gets feedback as to what is going on, only a very small percentage of the members will have issues addressed,” he said. “By the end of last year many teachers would have expected a new agreement to be signed.”He said that this slothful movement of GTU is causing teachers to lose confidence in the union. (Leon Suseran) |
