JTA to hold consultations on seven per cent wage offer

Jamaica Teachers’ Association President, Doran Dixon, says the union is to embark on a series of consultations with its members starting today  to determine if they will accept the government’s improved wage offer.

The government has added an additional two per cent on its initial offer of five per cent.

Dixon says the government is proposing an increase of three per cent for the 2015- 2016 financial year and a four per cent adjustment for 2016-2017.

He says following the talks a special conference will be convened on June 20 for delegates to vote on the way forward.

The JTA president says in the interim there is no guarantee that teachers who have been engaging in protest action will stop.

Dixon had warned that teachers may become sick like other members of the public service who are in wage negotiations with the government if they are not pleased with the latest offer.

The JTA has requested a 25 per cent wage increase in the wage claim submitted to the government.

In recent weeks, some teachers across the island have been staging sit-ins, holding street protests and wearing black to work to register their frustration and disappointment with the wage negotiations.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Ronald Thwaites, has indicated that his Ministry has identified $1 billion in its budget to go towards improved benefits to the educators.

According to him, all indications are that the wage settlement between the teachers and the Government is at hand.

He was addressing an education stakeholders breakfast consultation held at the Cedar Grove Academy, in St Catherine, yesterday.