JTA to deliberate over latest wage offer this Friday
Published:Tuesday | January 11, 2022 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
DELEGATES OF the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) will be meeting this Friday, January 14, to determine whether to accept the Government’s latest offer in ongoing wage talks.
Providing a brief update on the protracted wage negotiations, JTA President Winston Smith told The Gleaner yesterday that a new offer made by the Government will be tabled for discussion among its members this week, having already rejected a recent offer of a four per cent salary increase.
Smith, however, did not disclose what adjustments were made to the previously rejected offer.
He also refrained from addressing reports that a number of proposals the educators gave the Government were turned down, including one to give concessions to public sector teachers with more than 20 years’ experience.
“I am not at liberty to say anything in relation to those issues as yet, as I have not spoken to any of the designated bodies of the JTA, chiefly the delegates and the General Council,” said Smith. “All will be made known on January 14.”
The contention over the current round of wage discussions has roots going as far back as 2015, when then President Doran Dixon warned that public sector teachers would only be willing to accept a reasonable offer from the Government. At that time, in contrast to the Government’s five per cent wage offer, the JTA had requested a 25 per cent increase, with 15 per cent in the first year and 10 per cent in the second year.
Over the years, the desire for better salaries and benefits has prompted educators to seek greener pastures overseas, a move which has been blamed for a 6.2 percentage decrease in mathematics passes to 47.7 per cent in 2016.
In December 2017, talks between the two groups broke down after the Government proposed a six per cent wage increase, with three per cent in year one and another three per cent in year two. A subsequent meeting later that month left the JTA disappointed after the Government failed to present an improved wage offer.
The Government eventually offered a 16 per cent wage increase over the 2017-2021 period, which was accepted by teachers.
However, Smith’s predecessor, Jasford Gabriel, during his inaugural address as JTA president in 2020, described that offer as having made educators worse off due to the rate of inflation since 2017.
Last June, former JTA President Owen Speid urged teachers not to accept the 2.5 per cent wage increase that the Government had offered five months earlier, while disclosing that approximately 500 educators had migrated for overseas employment just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.