Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@guardian.co.tt

A meet­ing be­tween Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo and Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Dr Dar­ryl Din­di­al, sched­uled for Wednes­day, is be­ing close­ly watched by the A meet­ing be­tween Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo and Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Dr Dar­ryl Din­di­al, sched­uled for to­mor­row, will be close­ly watched by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), as teach­ers await long-promised salary ad­just­ments and the restora­tion of key ben­e­fits.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Bevin Ashe yes­ter­day said the meet­ing is ex­pect­ed to fo­cus on for­mal cor­re­spon­dence sub­mit­ted by the union to the Fi­nance Min­is­ter last week.

De­spite the pend­ing talks, Ashe con­firmed that no di­rect com­mu­ni­ca­tion has been re­ceived by TTUTA from the Gov­ern­ment.

Ashe said teach­ers across the coun­try have ral­lied be­hind the union’s call for ac­tion, with wide­spread par­tic­i­pa­tion in yes­ter­day’s “wear red” ini­tia­tive.

“The re­sponse from our mem­bers has been very pos­i­tive. We’ve been get­ting mes­sages of sup­port on Face­book, across so­cial me­dia and di­rect­ly from our staff rep­re­sen­ta­tives.”

He added, “Our rep­re­sen­ta­tives have shared with us that teach­ers have ful­ly bought in­to the idea. The lev­el of sol­i­dar­i­ty we’re see­ing right now is sec­ond to none.”

The TTUTA pres­i­dent said the union re­mains cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic, not­ing that ap­prox­i­mate­ly ten days re­main for the mat­ter to be re­solved.

“Any­thing is pos­si­ble. All that is need­ed is the green light from the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance.”

Once ap­proval is grant­ed, Ashe ex­plained, the ad­min­is­tra­tive process is rou­tine.

“The Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer will then in­struct the Fi­nance De­part­ment of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. They know ex­act­ly what to do. This is not an op­er­a­tional is­sue; it is about ap­proval.”

Ashe said Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Michael Dowlath is ex­pect­ed to ad­vo­cate on teach­ers’ be­half.

Asked whether TTUTA be­lieves there is bias, giv­en that oth­er unions have al­ready re­ceived pay­ments, Ashe said the dis­par­i­ty is ev­i­dent.

“It is clear favouritism. Those unions aligned them­selves with a po­lit­i­cal par­ty,” he said. How­ev­er, he stressed that TTUTA does not op­pose oth­er unions re­ceiv­ing their dues.

“We wish all unions could re­ceive what is due to them. But true trade union­ism means re­main­ing in­de­pen­dent. We are apo­lit­i­cal, and we in­tend to stay that way.”

Ashe al­so ex­pressed con­cern over the con­tin­ued sus­pen­sion of the Em­ploy­ee As­sis­tance Pro­gramme (EAP), which pro­vides coun­selling and sup­port ser­vices to teach­ers and their fam­i­lies.

“We were as­sured that the is­sue is be­ing ad­dressed, but no one has ex­plained ex­act­ly how it will be re­solved, whether by pay­ment or an­oth­er arrange­ment,” Ashe said.

As of now, he con­firmed, the pro­gramme re­mains in­ac­tive.

The sus­pen­sion af­fects ap­prox­i­mate­ly 13,000 teach­ers, along with their fam­i­ly mem­bers.