Teachers reject gov't’s wage offer, warn of intensified industrial action

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Mar 9, CMC – Educators represented by the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) on Wednesday voted against the government’s latest wage offer and could intensify industrial action which has so far consisted of sick-outs and sit-ins.

The JTA said in a statement that at a meeting at which 578 delegates voted on the offer, 346 rejected the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service’s latest offer and 227 voted to accept it. There were four spoiled ballots and one ballot was rejected.

“The majority votes reflect the collective will of the teachers,” said JTA president La Sonja Harrison.

“The delegates have spoken and they can’t guarantee normality in the education sector as of tomorrow.”

The JTA, which represents teachers from the 78 district associations across the country, is now seeking an urgent meeting with Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr. Nigel Clarke.

“The union will dispatch a letter to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service highlighting the results of the spoken voice of the delegates of the teachers of this nation, as well as request an urgent meeting with the minister to settle on a critical item,” Harrison said.

On the same day the delegates voted, several teachers staged a silent protest outside the ministry.

It was just on Tuesday, while opening the 2023/24 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives, that Minister Clarke urged public sector groups not yet signing the new compensation scheme, to come forward to settle wage agreements.

Of the approximately JM$79.4 billion (One Jamaica dollar = US$0.008) provided for in 2022/23 to pay the incremental amounts for the first year of the restructured compensation system, JM$12 billion has been allocated to teachers which must be paid out by the end of this month.

“It is budgeted for. It sits waiting for you, if you just give me the permission, through agreement, to give it to you,” Clarke had said.

“If these amounts remain unpaid over the next few weeks, meeting the fiscal balance targets required under our legislation does not leave room to accommodate these amounts in the next fiscal year…. As such, for fiscal sustainability, we will have no choice but to pay these amounts over several years commencing in financial year 2024/25.”

But the teachers are pressing for more pay.

According to the Jamaica Gleaner, the offer they have rejected is a guaranteed minimum 20 per cent increase in basic salary after tax deductions as well as double-digit increases for trained graduates who make up the bulk of the profession, over a three-year period.

Salary documents obtained by the newspaper show the minimum proposed pre-tax basic pay for pre-trained teachers to be JM$1.3 million annually, which will increase to JM$1.4 million from April 1, 2024. The maximum on the 11-point band is JM$1.8 million.

The majority of teachers are in the trained graduate category and the minimum offer is JM$2.5 million and a maximum of JM$3.6 million annually, it added.

Harrison said the teachers are demanding a “liveable” wage of not less than JM$3 million annually for all.

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