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Public school teachers to finally receive clothing allowance on Sept. salary
The way has finally been cleared for public school teachers to receive their clothing allowance which their union and the Ministry of Education agreed to in a multi-year remuneration agreement inked towards the end of last year.
GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte
According to a Ministry of Education circular signed by its Permanent Secretary, teachers will receive their clothing allowance on their September 2019 salary.
Moreover, only teachers currently in the system will benefit from this payout which will represent clothing allow for a four-year period [2016 -2019].
This was confirmed yesterday by GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, who revealed that “the union had suggested that this form be adopted to pay those who are in the system irrespective of where they are.”
As such he noted that the various regions are being urged to ensure that by the end of September all teachers receive their clothing allowance.
For those teachers who have resigned or otherwise left the system but are eligible for clothing allowance, Lyte said that another mechanism will be put in place by the Ministry to cater to their payment.
“That is a positive,” said Lyte of this development. He, however, expressed some disappointment. “We are still awaiting word on the implementation of debunching from January 2019.”
According to the GTU President, the last the union heard of this issue was that the Permanent Secretary was awaiting word from the Ministry of Finance for the go ahead.
The decision to have the Ministry put teachers on their respective scales and commence regular debunching payments from January 2019 was in fact part of the agreement the parties signed to.
The agreement entailed a one-off $350M to teachers owed for the period 2011 to 2018 before they were placed on respective scales.
Another aspect of the agreement that the Ministry is yet to honour is that of the $10,000 monthly allowance for special needs teachers.
Failure on the part of the Ministry to honour segments of the agreement had in fact forced the union to halt talks with the union for another multi-year agreement as the previous one expired in December of last year, shortly after it was inked.
The previous agreement, which materialised after many halted bouts of negotiation and industrial action, was signed between the union and the Ministry of education spanned the period 2016 – 2018.
“We have not proceeded to continue talks for the new agreement but early in new [September] term we hope to recommence the talks,” said Lyte who pointed that the union has been able to address with the Ministry the remediation programme as well as Whitley Council circular which is also expected to be shortly issued.
“So we are hoping in the new term that will be sent to all schools,” said an optimistic Lyte.
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