The teachers’ union is weak

Aug 13, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government cannot be serious about education when all that it offered to teachers is G$700 for increases in wages and salaries. Just how the government could have offered this sum to teachers is beyond understanding.
It is highly disrespectful. G$700 is not going to go very far. It is better that teachers not accept anything and wait for the annual imposition by the government. They will be better off.
The shameful offer by the government comes at a time when the government in its half yearly report has announced an increase of some 9 billion dollars in revenue above the same period last year. The money is there to pay the teachers what they are asking.
But the government is not interested in ensuring that teachers get the sort of deal that they deserved. The government has the ability to pay the teachers
They did claim when they were in opposition that because of the massive corruption by the PPPC, billions of dollars were being stolen and the end of this corruption would allow for greater sums to be available. The public is yet to see the evidence of the billions which were purportedly stolen by the PPPC administration.
Another excuse by the government is that it cannot afford to pay teachers more because it also has other public servants to pay. There is no reason, however, why the monies cannot be found to pay substantial increases to all public servants.
And there is no reason why teacher wages should be tied to that of public servants. Given the emphasis on education by the government, there is no reason why the teachers’ demands cannot be met.
The entire approach to teachers’ salaries is wrong. The government should be first establishing a living wage and then deciding how long it will take, and what it will require, to pay this living wage. But this is not what is being done.
The government instead seems comfortable with having to pay wage increases to all public employees each year. There is no need for this as inflation is low.
As long as inflation is contained, then the priority should be to only pay wage increases every three years to compensate for inflation. There is no need for wage increases every year.
Annual wage increases are leaving public servants worse off than before. Right now an entry level clerk within the government earns around $60,000 per month. But an unskilled laborer pushing a wheelbarrow is earning $80,000 per month for the same number of hours. It means that the unskilled worker is earning 30% higher than the qualified entry level government employee.
Labour is not being encouraged to be productive when each year public sector workers know that they will enjoy an increase regardless of how efficient they are. This idea of annual wage increases does not make sense, except to converge towards a living wage.
But since the government is not setting a living wage, its annual wage increases are not linked to converging towards this living wage. This is a recipe for continuous dissatisfaction by workers.
The teachers right now are dissatisfied. They have been waiting since the end of 2015 for their increases. It has not been forthcoming. Yet handpicked persons within the government are being handed super salaries.
The teachers however have a bigger problem than the government. The problem is their union.
The teachers’ union is weak. There is the distinct impression that they do not wish to strike against the government. And if this impression persists, then it is likely that the teachers union will end up settling for the crumbs which is being offered.

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