Chester Sambrano
The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) says at least 78 per cent of teachers supported its call for action on Thursday.
TTUTA had asked its members to skip the morning session of school and turn up for half-day or for only the afternoon period.
This was meant to protest the Chief Personnel Officer’s (CPO) four per cent salary increase offer for the bargaining period from 2014 to 2019.
The Ministry of Education did not release any of its official data on teacher attendance for yesterday, so it was impossible to compare it with the TTUTA figures.
TTUTA had indicated that the decision to take yesterday’s action was made at a meeting on September 12. Its General Council decided to take action following the lack of response from CPO Dr Darryl Dindial to its letter dated September 2.
However, this is not the first action being taken by teachers for this current school term.
On the first day of the new academic year (September 5), teachers stayed away from classes to ‘rest and reflect’ on the CPO’s wage offer.
TTUTA said they are requesting a 50 per cent closure of the gap between what teachers are currently earning to comparable positions in the employment market.
Just last Friday, the Prison Officers’ Association and the Fire Service Association delivered a letter to the CPO again rejecting his four per cent offer. At that time, they told the CPO they are not afraid of being taken to court over the matter.
The other unions currently before the CPO are the T&T Police Service Social and Welfare Association (TTPSSWA), National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) and Public Services Association (PSA). They have also rejected the offer on the table.
The Government has said that it would cost $2.5 billion in backpay alone and an additional $500 million annually for the State sector salaries.