Labour Department urges conciliation before arbitration

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─ grievance procedure by which the conciliatory process operates must be exhausted before Arbitration can take place – Chief Labour Officer

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, August 30, 2018

The Ministry of Social Protection’s Department of Labour has again urged the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) to participate in the conciliatory process before it considers moving to arbitration.

The Ministry of Education and the GTU met again today at the Labour Department’s office at 21 Brickdam, however, the meeting had to be adjourned as the GTU maintained its stance on moving on to arbitration.

At today’s meeting Chief Labour Officer (CLO) Charles Ogle maintained that the grievance procedure by which the conciliatory process operates must be exhausted before Arbitration can take place.

While the GTU maintained that it was not interested in conciliation, but arbitration the Ministry of Education submitted – in essence – that it was prepared to respect the grievance procedure and allow conciliation to continue.

The CLO reiterated his earlier plea to the union to call off the strike so that the conciliation process can continue but that plea went unheeded.

In support of that call, the Ministry of Education tabled a Position Paper containing possible Terms of Resumption which terms the Union did not find favour with.

In light of the labour-differing positions adopted by the parties, the conciliator reluctantly adjourned the meeting.

Speaking to the media minutes after the meeting, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Adele Clarke said the ministry is hoping that the process is resolved within the guidelines as provided in the labour agreement.

Alexis Rodney

Image: Keno George