As of next June, around 133 thousand public sector teachers will have a 5% salary increasewhile the administrative staff of the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) will receive Q400 per month. In addition, workers will obtain Q500 more in the bonus that is delivered in June and December.
The decision was announced at a press conference this April 30 at the National Palace of Culture, with the presence of President Bernardo Arévalo, the Attorney General, Julio Saavedra, and MINEDUC authorities. In the activity it was also reported that SE will present an unconstitutionality action against several articles of the collective pact of working conditions in force and is taken as a basis in negotiation with the Guatemalan Education Workers Union (Steg).
According to Anabella Giracca, Minister of Education, the economic benefits that teachers will receive a disbursement of Q609 million in the seven months of the year. 50% of the funds will leave the payroll economies and the rest will be assumed by the Ministry of Finance.
The amount that teachers will receive will vary according to their ranks. For example: the preprimary and primary teachers who are on the ranking A will obtain Q220 more, while those who are located in the Flafon F will have an increase of Q495. As for the June and December bonds, the sum It will go from Q2 thousand 500 to Q3 thousand.
Francisco Cabrera, Technical Deputy Minister, indicated that 5% salary improvement is the maximum amount that the portfolio can grant at this time, and that each percentage point of increase represents about Q100 million.
The Mineduc proposal on economic benefits for teachers was not presented at the negotiating table that takes place every Wednesday with the Steg. The decision was adopted by the ministerial authorities.
“Negotiation has been too postponed and we could not sacrifice the salary increase for continuing to wait to put these issues on the table,” said the minister. As stated in the minutes of each meeting, articles with economic impact were left for the end of the negotiation.
In this regard, Francisco Cabrera, Technical Deputy Minister, indicated that It is the Faculty of the Executive to set the salary increasesand that this is a benefit to the teaching, so the union would not have to oppose.
Since its inception on March 6, 2024, the advance of the collective pact is 85%. The authorities indicated that the discussion continues and that there is no established period for its conclusion.
Under confidentiality
The negotiation of the collective pact of working conditions for the teaching began with disagreements. The Mineduc has tried to make public the project that the STEG delivered under confidentiality to the government minister of Alejandro Giammattei, Claudia Ruiz. However, after several amparos, The document remains in reserve.
Most of the articles have been approved and have not undergone changes regarding the pact that expired on March 11, 2024. They are those that, at the discretion of the authorities, put the rectory and decision making of the Ministry at risk that have made it difficult to reach consensus and have delayed the discussion.
Among these is the article related to the School medical insurancerepealed in February last year, and whose inclusion in the new pact was driven by the union. Finally, it was replaced by the School Health Program, implemented by the administration of Bernardo Arévalo.
“This is a true negotiation. It is not a table where we are going to accept everything. It’s about discussing and looking for what is best for the country’s educational system,” said Francisco Cabrera, Technical Deputy Minister. For this Wednesday, April 30, meeting number 43 was planned.
Giracca said that The dialogue with the union has not broken And he stressed that the Ministry does not act under pressure or coercion, and that they do not fear the reactions that Steg may have before the decision of the increase.
“We are here to transform education, to recover the rectory of the Ministry of Education. We are respectful of the law; we are using the right paths to recover it. So the word fear and fear is not within our measures.”
Anabella Giracca, Minister of Education
Legal actions
President Bernardo Arévalo said that several articles of the previous collective pact granted Joviel Acevedo, leader of the Steg, functions that correspond “exclusively” to the Mineduc, and that granted him “illegally rights and powers that make him a quasi -parallel minister.”
In that context, through the Attorney General’s Office (PGN), an action of unconstitutionality will be presented to “correct” the abuses of the current agreement, which are in the articles whose discussion has been postponed.
“The Steg dome refuses to renounce the privileges that should never be in a collective pact, which must refer to collective working conditions and labor rights and duties. In recent years, articles that go beyond the work environment have been introduced and directly affect the rectory of the public educational policy, and they are the ones that the union refuses to discuss,” said Gira.
Saavedra indicated that the points at which the STEG powers are granted that, by law, correspond to MINEDUC, and that on that basis are analyzed on that basis, and that on that basis The unconstitutionality action will be presented in the next few days.
On the other hand, it was reported that the portfolio has a provisional protection that protects the right to education, which prevents actions such as taking schools and buildings, as well as the suspension of classes.
133 thousand teachers will enjoy the salary increase of 5%, and 9 thousand workers in the administrative area will receive Q400 per month from June.
Government fixed position
At the discretion of Luis Linares, an analyst at the workplace of the Association of Research and Social Studies (thus), Mineduc’s unilateral decision to grant economic benefits to teachers can be interpreted as A measure to set position and leave, before public opinion, that this is the percentage of salary increase that the Executive is willing to offer.
“Since the negotiation of the pact has not been completed, the government advances in communicating which is the increase that is willing to grant: they take it or leave it. Therefore, they announce it publicly as a way of pressing the union to accept this amount,” said Linares.
He added that, for the negotiation of a collective pact, there are no rules more than seeking the maximum agreement between the parties involved. In case the consensus is not reached, The next step is to go to the Arbitration and Conciliation Court.
However, Linares does not rule out that the union directed by Acevedo resorts to mass mobilizations as a pressure mechanism for the MINEDUC to modify the salary increase proposal.
He last April 10, Steg affiliates mobilized through the streets of the capital city to demand advances in the discussion of the collective pact, despite the fact that a court ordered the union to refrain from blockages and suspension of classes.