Ali­cia Llanos

Teach­ers are de­mand­ing an ex­ter­nal labour mar­ket sur­vey be done to de­ter­mine teach­ing salaries.The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion's (TTUTA) gen­er­al coun­cil mem­bers hit the streets in protest on Fri­day for the sec­ond time, de­mand­ing the sur­vey be done be­fore any wage in­crease pro­pos­al is giv­en to them by Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Stephanie Lewis.TTUTA mem­bers marched in front of the CPO's of­fice, St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain.TTUTA pres­i­dent Rous­tan Job said: "We are here again to demon­strate our dis­plea­sure with how ne­go­ti­a­tions are go­ing."Job said TTUTA want­ed the CPO to com­plete an ex­ter­nal labour mar­ket sur­vey to en­sure teach­ers' salaries re­main com­pet­i­tive.

He said with­out the sur­vey, TTUTA could not de­ter­mine the in­creased wage per­cent­age they be­lieved teach­ers de­served.Job said, how­ev­er, "from all in­di­ca­tions" it seemed as though the CPO wished to by­pass the sur­vey and of­fer teach­ers the same five per cent wage in­crease giv­en to pub­lic ser­vants.He said TTUTA had been us­ing the sur­vey since 2000 to de­ter­mine salaries and was dis­pleased the CPO was "choos­ing not to com­plete it."Job said he feared a re­sult of poor salaries would be young teach­ers leav­ing the pub­lic school sys­tem for more at­trac­tive wages at pri­vate schools.He said he could not say what fur­ther ac­tions TTUTA would take should the CPO con­tin­ue to refuse to con­duct the sur­vey.Job added TUT­TA would refuse to take any five per cent wage in­crease of­fer.