Hot Like Pepper - Settle teachers’ pay talks now! - Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago : Settle teachers’ pay talks now!

2007/9/12 20:00:00

The United National Congress-Alliance calls on Prime Minister Patrick Manning to offer deserved conditions of work and better salaries to the nation’s teachers in order to conclude the long unresolved collective agreement.

The UNC Alliance says it is distressed that teachers have had to resort to protests in order to alert the authorities to the unsettled pact for the period 2005-2008.

The party says, the Government, through the Chief Personnel Officer, is guilty of foot-dragging on the vital issue of the remuneration package and working conditions for teachers.

According to the party, the Government’s callous indifference toward the collective agreement flies in the face of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s recent address to the Caribbean Union of Teachers, in which he said his Government, appreciated the roles and contributions of the nation’s educators.

The UNC Alliance notes that the industrial contract with Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association remains outstanding even while agreements for other public sector employees have long been concluded.

Indeed, the party says, the Government recently awarded wage increases to certain daily-paid workers even without representation being made for improved benefits.

The UNC Alliance says it appreciates the gains negotiated on behalf of those workers, especially since they have to battle against galloping inflation under an incompetent and insensitive PNM regime.

But the party calls upon the authorities to present meaningful counter-proposals to TTUTA for the earliest possible settlement of the long overdue collective agreement.