The Ministry of Education will only engage the Guyana Teachers' Union (GTU) after terms of resumption for striking teachers have been signed.
Meanwhile the Labour Minister, Dr Dale Bisnauth has been unable to make contact with union leaders after his Wednesday meeting where he presented the Cabinet's wage offer.
He has formally written to the union about the government's $40M-$60M offer to upgrade the salaries of the lower category of teachers on a par with the minimum wage of the traditional public servants.
He says this could also serve as the basis for further negotiations but says he has had no response from the union since he communicated with them verbally on Wednesday.
In his letter he offered his ministry's services in resolving the strike, now over 24 days old
Cabinet's offer was made after it was noted that the major recommendations of the Advisory Committee had already been discussed between the union and the ministry at other levels prior to the breakdown in the talks.
Since no response had been forthcoming and due to the critical situation, Bisnauth said that he had made several attempts to contact the union executive on Thursday but was unsuccessful. On Thursday the union was engaged in a protest march in New Amsterdam.
When contacted yesterday, GTU General Secretary Avril Crawford said the union had not received Bisnauth's letter.
However a union release reiterated that at Wednesday's meeting with the Labour Minister two sets of figures were presented - $50 million for the upgrading of salaries and $15M, specifically to be applied to the outcome of negotiations for 2003, in an attempt to bring closure to 2002.
The union said, "it must be noted with interest that the Minister of Labour stated clearly that he is in no position to make an offer and that he was just communicating Cabinet's position."
The GTU said that to date the union had not received any offer from the Education Ministry and as a consequence urged teachers to "remain resolute, for the struggle continues."
At a press conference held at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) yesterday, Education Minister, Dr Henry Jeffrey said that the Ministry of Labour said no letter or offer would be "coming from the Ministry of Education because the Ministry of Education will not be making any moves to negotiate under duress."
He stressed that the ministry "will not be engaging the union in normal industrial relations practice until such time as we have the terms of resumption and the situation normalised."
Jeffrey felt that the union was "once again" using delaying tactics. He also noted that that 65% of the schools were working.
He added that the ministry recognised that teachers and other public servants were working for poor salaries but this had to do with the nature of the country rather than any wish on anyone's behalf to keep salaries at a low level.
He urged the Ministry of Labour and the GTU to "call us together as quickly as possible so we can bring an end to this dispute." (Miranda La Rose)