Strike action: Nandlall cautions teachers that salaries will be deducted eventually

As some teachers across the country continue to engage in industrial action, Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC says that the salaries of striking teachers will be deducted eventually.

High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon, last Thursday, granted two conservatory orders preventing the government from cutting the salaries of striking teachers and also blocking the decision to discontinue the deduction of union dues from their salaries.

Nandlall said the judge’s ruling was wrongly interpreted as a green light for the strike to continue without the eventual deduction of salaries and a discontinuation of the automatic dedication and transfer of union dues.

“The orders of the judge were temporary, they are interim and I am convinced that in the end, the case for the government ought to prevail and when that happens, the interim orders will have to be discharged,” Nandlall said during his weekly ‘Issues in the News’ programme.

He further explained that these temporary orders were granted to preserve the “status quo” as the substantive case proceeds. When those orders were granted, the government side had not yet presented any arguments, only the arguments from the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).

But once the case is completed, Nandlall opined that the government’s actions will be upheld since they are in keeping with the law.

“I hope that teachers understand that these monies will be deducted,” he added, disclosing that Education Ministry officials are still keeping records of the teachers who show up to schools and those who do not.

The Attorney General reiterated that the strike action is illegal since talks between the union and the Education Ministry had not broken down. Those talks centered on a proposed multi-year agreement that includes salary increases. Talks were still ongoing up to a week before the strike, he said.

He explained previously that Guyana’s constitution says workers have a freedom to strike but that freedom carries “conditionalities” and “burdens.” That simply means that workers can strike but employers can then take necessary actions, such as deducting money from their salaries.

Nandlall said if such provisions didn’t exist, workers could simply choose to strike all year and then claim that any move to deduct their salaries would be unlawful.