Guatemala's Teachers' Union Negotiating for More Holidays

Sources: La Prensa Libre and Guatemala Public Holidays. Guatemala's Teachers' Union (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guatemala, or STEG) is currently renegotiating its collective agreement with the government.

Not surprisingly, one of the union's demands is more holidays for its members. Specifically: Guatemala's Teacher's Day on June 25 (Día del Maestro en Guatemala), and International Teaching Day on October 5 (Día internacional del docente), as well as the automatic compensation of public holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday.

More original, is the demand that a personal public holiday be declared for each teacher on his or her birthday, and the somewhat politically incorrectly stated demand that male heads of family (varones que sean padres de familia) get an additional public holiday on June 17.

To top it off, the STEG demands that teachers be allowed to arrive late for work, 40 days a year, without any sanction (based on the argument that non-teaching civil servants of the Ministry of Education, Mineduc, are allowed to come late for work, 48 days a year).