| – GTU PresidentGTU President,Mark LyteMore than half of the Guyana Teachers Union’s (GTU) members have indicated their willingness to participate in industrial action set to commence today.This is according to GTU President, Mark Lyte, who told this publication yesterday that the work-to-rule action that has been organised by the Union is certainly not an elections gimmick.The industrial action, which will see teachers doing their assigned task and no more, and possibly even returning home if their working environment is not conducive enough,wholesale jerseys, is one intended to retaliate to Government’s non-payment of debunching monies.The debunching payment is intended to cater to the salaries of teachers,Wholesale Football Jerseys, whereby those with the same status will be paid based on their years of experience.This would,Wholesale NFL China Jerseys, for example, ensure that a senior teacher who was trained 10 years ago will not be placed on the same salary scale as a senior master or mistress that was subsequently trained.According to Lyte, the Union has informed the Ministry of the industrial action by way of letter, and the various schools were given written notification.The GTU President however admitted that some of the teachers within its membership are reluctant to embrace the action since they are not convinced that it will yield the desired impact.He informed that the reluctance of some teachers to participate might be linked to their ignorance of the form of industrial action.As such,Discount NFL Jerseys, he noted that during the Union’s observance of Labour Day on Friday the teachers in attendance were sensitised about the work-to-rule. “It is not a waste of time,” Lyte insisted, as he assured that the possibility of intensifying the action has not been ruled out.“We can do a sit-in,Jerseys From China, or a full-blown strike for about a week but we want to start by alerting the administration (Government) that we will not sit back and be ignored.We are sending a message to them via this action that if they don’t get their acts together, we can take other forms of industrial action,” warned the GTU President.But according to Lyte, “we don’t really want to be calling a full strike action because teachers will lose money…they don’t even have money already and so the strike might be something that we cannot sustain. Teachers have mortgages to pay and other expenses, and Government knows that we wouldn’t be able to sustain it.”Lyte in explaining the work-to-rule process said that teachers are being asked to pay keen attention to the non-academic norms (working conditions) of their schools.And according to him, if teachers are to work based on the conducive conditions of schools it could be very impacting since most schools across the country do not have conducive measures in place.He noted that with the work-to-rule action, teachers will go to work each day as per norm but can leave after reporting faulty conditions to their Head Teachers.“Once these concerns are not fixed, they can leave early every day,” explained Lyte as he pointed out that the onus is on the Head Teacher to report the teachers’ concerns to the respective Departments of Education.Lyte is hopeful that while just over half the Union’s 7,000-odd membership will participate in the industrial action from today, more will eventually come on board.As such the GTU President is of the belief that the industrial action could have a significant impact on the education system.The education system is preparing to not only conduct the National Grade Two,Wholesale Authentic NFL Jerseys, Four and Nine Assessments but also the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).Lyte at a press conference last week said that the industrial action is likely to continue indefinitely until such time that teachers are afforded the monies owed to them. This is in spite of the fact that the Union has not even been given a guarantee by the Administration that the payment will be forthcoming should the People’s Progressive Party/Civic win the upcoming national elections.The Union, during the latter part of last year, had discussions with A Partnership for National Unity, but according to Lyte, the debunching matter was not an issue that was discussed.A decision to institute the industrial action was one that followed on the heels of a meeting between Head of the Presidential Secretariat,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, Dr Roger Luncheon, and Union executives two Wednesdays ago. During that forum, Lyte informed that Dr Luncheon revealed that Government is unable to honour the debunching payment, a promise that was first made 10 years ago. |
