Teachers take arrears issue to Ministry again

Members of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), and teachers who are owed arrears of increments, will gather at the Ministry of Education on Tuesday to “enquire about the status of payment of the arrears.” A release from TTUTA said all teachers who had not yet received their monies for the period 1987 to 1995 are asked to meet at the Ministry’s Alexandra Street office at 10 am. Although payments were promised to the teachers by September last year, some 600 teachers are still to receive their arrears. The union said many of those teachers have not even received liability statements. “All patience has been exhausted with this blatant display of ineptitude and contempt by the Ministry of Education.

TTUTA calls on all teachers who have not yet received payments to go down to the ministry and see about their business.” TTUTA said, “enough is enough,” having already twice picketed the ministry’s offices in December and April. The union said the ministry was not giving answers to the union or the affected teachers on the matter. Meanwhile, there has been no settlement for salary increases for the period October 2002 to September 2005 between the union and the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). The negotiations continued yesterday at the CPO’s St Vincent Street office. General secretary of the union, Peter Wilson, told Newsday, “the negotiations are at a delicate stage” and would resume Wednesday.

He said it was difficult to say if a settlement would be reached soon, but the union was hopeful it would be in the “shortest possible time.” Wilson said the union’s General Council will meet before Wednesday to discuss the proposals on the table, but he preferred not to divulge details of the proposals. When TTUTA met with the CPO earlier this week, president Trevor Oliver said “something negotiable” had been put on the table. He said the “gap had been narrowed” and he was encouraged by the movement. Oliver said the union was hoping that the matter would be settled before school reopens on August 30.