JTA walks out of wage talks, demands improved offer by Sunday
Published:Friday | August 15, 2025 | 1:55 PM
The negotiating team for the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) walked out of wage talks with Finance Minister Fayval Williams and her team on Friday, after giving the Government a deadline of midnight on Sunday to present a “substantially” improved salary offer, a top union official has revealed.
The JTA is the union that represents public sector teachers.
“We told the Minister and her team that they have until midnight, Sunday, August 17, to put a substantially improved offer on the table. Failing that, all options are on the table,” JTA president-elect Mark Malabver told The Gleaner on Friday.
A statement from the JTA on Friday went further, indicating that “the association reserves the right to activate all its machinery to respond” if there is no improved wage offer by Sunday's deadline.
“The JTA wishes to indicate that the nation's teachers deserve a more liveable wage and a better response than what has been placed on the table for negotiations,” the statement said.
Public sector teachers have been without a wage deal since March 31 this year, when the previous agreement expired.
A new wage pact was expected to take effect on April 1.
Negotiations for the new agreement began last November when the JTA submitted its proposal for a two-year agreement to the Ministry of Finance.
It reported that the Ministry countered with a four-year offer of zero per cent in year one, and 2.5 per cent in each of the remaining years.
That offer was rejected, and Malabver said the JTA team attended Friday's meeting “in good faith, expecting that a substantially improved offer would have been put on the table based on the last discussion.”
That did not materialise, he said.
The JTA statement said a zero per cent offer in any of the years is untenable—an indication that the Government's proposal had not changed.
“We indicated to the Minister [Williams] that we are very disappointed,” Malabver said.
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