HANOVER, Jamaica — Outgoing president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), La Sonja Harrison, says several public school teachers continue to have challenges with the salaries paid to them by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. However, she is hopeful that the issue will be addressed soon.

“It is still a work in progress. There are still teachers who have some concerns about what they received. Their salaries still move each month, a different figure. In our technical meeting, they did say that, perhaps, by December, we should see some tapering off of the same and for normalcy to return to the pay stub in a systematic way,” she told journalists during the first of the JTA’s three-day 59th annual conference in Negril on Monday.

Earlier this year, there were complaints that several teachers were yet to receive their salaries while others were yet to receive their correct pay under the newly agreed wages and retroactive payments hammered out during the Government’s compensation review process.

On Monday, Harrison encouraged teachers who are still facing challenges to get in touch with the leadership of the 25,000-member strong union.

“I encourage my colleagues always to go to your regional offices, make the necessary enquiries, and where they continue to experience challenges they come to us their unions so we can do further checks and balances and to do our necessary interventions through the work of our liaison officers and regional officers using our power through the association,” stated Harrison.

She is to hand over the baton to president-elect Leighton Johnson during an investiture ceremony Monday night.

– Anthony Lewis