New JTA president wants salary issues resolved by end of September
Published:Tuesday | August 22, 2023 | 4:40 PM
Leighton Johnson, the newly-installed president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), says the organisation is prepared to take action if the Government does not adequately address educators' concerns about the payment of retroactive salaries or payment recalculations by the end of September.
Johnson made the announcement today while speaking with journalists on the second day of the JTA's 59th annual conference in Negril, Westmoreland.
He would not say if the teachers' planned action may involve protests or disruption of classes across Jamaica's schools.
“We are dotting all our I's, we are crossing all the T's, and I can indicate that, having written letters, there is a particular course of action that teachers are prepared to take. We are prepared to take the necessary actions as outlined from advice [given to us], that if we get no resolution by the time we have our next general council meeting, then the teachers will follow a particular course, and the next general council meeting will be in the last week in September,” said Johnson.
While unwilling to say what the JTA's next move will be, Johnson promised that the group's plans will not involve disrupting the start of the new school term, which begins on September 4.
According to the JTA president, one of the major issues that teachers want resolved is the variation in the monies that they receive in their monthly salaries.
“The Finance Minister [Dr Nigel Clarke] indicated that the process of this new compensation regime would have simplified the process of compensation. Currently, we are not seeing how this is easier, as to date, teachers still do not understand how their pays are calculated,” said Johnson.
“When they go to the bank each month a different sum is remitted and we have found several instances where a person's regular salary is constant, but the amount of monies that is taken out of the salary for taxes fluctuates.”
Salary dissatisfaction has been a frequently-given reason for local teachers resigning and taking on better-paying jobs overseas.
- Christopher Thomas
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