The T&T Unified Teachers Association) says it will comply with the injunction Government has filed to prevent it from taking industrial action today
A TTUTA official told Guardian Media that the court document instructed them to advise teachers to report for duty tomorrow (today).
However, the TTUTA official meanwhile said it is not the end of the matter.
Commenting on the decision of the Government to take the legal route, the official said, “It’s part of it, we play ball, they play ball, it is nothing to get upset about.”
The official added that the “Government will do what they need to do and TTUTA will do what it needs to do.”
In a Whatsapp video message late last night, TTUTA president Antonia Tekah De Freitas also advised members of the injunction and indicated that they should report to classes today.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said yesterday that it expected “the compliance of TTUTA and all its members with the laws of Trinidad and Tobago and the order of the Court.”
The Ministry said full attendance by all students and teachers at schools across Trinidad and Tobago is therefore expected today.
Earlier yesterday, TTUTA’s Marlon Seales called on its 14,000 teachers to rest and reflect.
The call was made four days after TTUTA asked members last Thursday to skip the morning session of schools and turn up for half-day or only the afternoon period.
If the “rest and reflect” action had not been blocked, it would have been TTUTA’s third call for action since the new academic term reopened earlier this month.
The action could have disrupted classes at 477 primary and 134 secondary schools across the country.
T&T has approximately 12,000 pupils in primary schools while the secondary school population is 76,000.
On the first day of classes on September 5, TTUTA also asked its members to stay away from classes to ‘rest and reflect’ based on the CPO’s wage offer. Some 70 per cent of teachers heeded TTUTA’s call.
A few weeks ago, TTUTA delivered a letter to the CPO Darryl Dindial, informing him that his last offer to its union - 4 per cent - was “unacceptable” and had asked that both parties continue discussions based on what was initially put on the table.