Now teachers want their arrears

The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) has emphatically declared that they “will not stand idly by and tolerate much longer the continued failure of the Ministry of Education and the Tobago House of Assembly to live up to agreements” with regards to payment of arrears to teachers for the period 1987 — 1995.

In a release late yesterday afternoon, General Secretary of  TTUTA, Peter Wilson, exp-ressed his displeasure with the performance of the Ministry of Education (MOE), as it is claiming to have prepared Liability Statements for teachers, who have yet to receive said payments. Wilson reported that the MOE claimed to have prepared some 10,000 Liability Statements for 19,000 teachers (including retirees), and that far less than that number have actually reached the schools and teachers. In addition, “not one teacher has actually received payment,” stated Wilson. He added that the situation was worsening in Tobago where, “through miscommunication between the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), no teacher has received a Liability Statement.”

At the beginning of 2003, the MOE promised teachers that they would have received Liability Statements in three or four months time, but later cited “manpower constraints,” and changed the deadline to August, promising actual payments by the end of September. “Once more, teachers and TTUTA come face to face with the apparent inability (or its unwillingness) of the MOE to keep its word and fulfill agreements reached between the employer and TTUTA,” Wilson said. TTUTA is therefore demanding that the MOE “remove the snags and expedite the process so that all eligible teachers can be paid their arrears of increments for the period 1987 — 1995.” Further, TTUTA is calling on the THA “not to have teachers in Tobago lag behind their counterparts in Trinidad,” suggesting that they (THA) need to ensure that teachers in Tobago receive their Liability Statements and payments in the shortest time possible. The release concluded by once again expressing TTUTA’s unwillingness to patiently wait while the MOE decides what it will do next, and the demand that “Teachers Must Be Paid Their Arrears Now!”