Teachers’ wage dispute still unresolved
THE Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and the Ministry of Finance have still not settled their wages and fringe benefits dispute, which last month led to a two-day shutdown of public schools islandwide.
“Out of the nine issues that were brought to us, an agreement has been brokered where seven are concerned, but the critical issue, which is the three per cent increase being offered by the Government, the teachers have still not accepted,” a spokesperson from the labour ministry told the Observer Friday.
The teachers went on strike after the Government refused to grant them a 30 per cent pay hike in the first year followed by a 20 per cent hike in the second year. The government, they said, was being disrespectful by presenting a counter-offer of a three per cent increase in the first year, three per cent in the second year, plus an additional 2.15 per cent incremental increase per year afterwards.
The dispute was referred to the Ministry of Labour when the teachers’ union threatened to hold a second two-day strike. That strike threat was averted, however, following a four-hour meeting with the teachers and the ministries of finance and education. At that meeting, the parties also agreed to take discussions back to the local level and submit a report on the outcome of these talks on March 12 to Labour Minister Horace Dalley.
“The whole discussion has been significantly improved since we have been with the minister of labour. He has created an atmosphere where the ministry of finance is less reluctant to listen to the arguments being put forward by the association. We have found them much more flexible and in general I think the whole tone of the negotiation has gotten better,” JTA general secretary Adolf Cameron told the Observer.
He said the two outstanding issues not yet reconciled will be researched and discussed further with the minister of labour, who will meet once more with all parties by the end of this week.
Until then, Cameron said there will be no more industrial action by the teachers.
“We are still with the Ministry of Labour now, and as the regulations indicate, we ought not to take industrial action when the matter is in conciliation… it would not be appropriate, so we just have to just see what is the total outcome and that will be presented to our members,” he said.
Education Minister Maxine Henry Wilson last week chided teachers for debating the issue publicly, and appealed for a quick and amicable solution in the interest of the island’s students.
“When we negotiate in public we talk past each other, instead of talking with each other. When we get to the negotiating table, we can do all the shouting, but when we are in public, it is very important for us to field a united team, committed to one goal– the education of our country,” Henry-Wilson told the LASCO/JTA Teacher of the Year Awards luncheon.