The entrance to the Guam Department of Education headquarters in Tiyan is shown April 4, 2023. GDOE employees under the General Pay Plan, which includes administrative and support staff, won’t see the promised 22% raise this pay period.
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam Department of Education employees under the General Pay Plan, which includes administrative and support staff, won’t see the promised 22% raise this pay period.
“Employees have not received the GPP because money has not been deposited into our account,” GDOE acting Superintendent Judith Won Pat told The Guam Daily Post on Thursday.
On Monday, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero announced that the plan for the funds granted by Public Law 37-3 to cover the costs of the 22% raise for GPP employees was submitted to the Legislature and, as a result, the Department of Administration could release the augmented cash allotments to respective entities.
She noted that individual agencies would be responsible for paying the new rates.
However, not all agencies were in the first round of submissions, and no list of allotments to be released was provided when the governor made the announcement.
Sen. Chris Barnett, the legislative chairperson of the Committee on Education, has been fielding questions from GDOE employees under the GPP. He admonished GDOE for not providing better communication.
“I know I’m not the only one who was getting a ton of calls and messages about this issue, simply because GDOE management failed to communicate to its employees the status of raise payouts,” Barnett said.
The calls from concerned constituents prompted the senator to reach out to the acting superintendent.
“Let’s not forget, the GPP workers in GDOE are not the highest-paid workers, but they are definitely some of the hardest working in (the government of Guam),” Barnett said.
Won Pat, following Barnett’s statement to the media, said, “I had issued a memo to all employees. The senator asked if I had, and my response was yes, and (I) gave him a copy of the memo.”
During a public hearing on Bill 75-37 on May 9, Barnett followed up with DOA Director Edward Birn on the funds for GDOE. At the time, Birn asserted the funds were on the way.
“(GDOE employees) need that money, and we didn’t work hard to pass it quickly just to have GPP workers first get the runaround from Adelup, and then have to rely on the media to find out whether or not they were getting their 22% increase,” said Barnett. “They have been counting on that money, and they should have been able to count on Adelup and GDOE (to do) what they could expeditiously to get the raises out to the people who deserve them.”
The Post reached out to the governor’s communications director, Krystal Paco-San Agustin, regarding Barnett’s comments, but a statement from Adelup was not received as of press time.
