Philipsburg:--- A press release from president of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot states that the board of the W.I.T.U. received phone calls and e-mails from a number of Public School teachers, who reported that the promised Periodic Increase in the salary that should have been applied since August 1st, 2009 was not included. This action contradicts the statement made to the local media by the commissioner of Education, Mr. William that the Periodic Increase would be paid on the month end of September 2009.
These disappointed teachers have voiced their concerns to the union and have asked what action will be taken.
WITU conducted an investigation at the beginning of September 2009 and the results of this was that only two school boards had given this periodic increase to the teachers working at their school , namely the Protestant Christian School board (Hillside Christian School) and the School Board for Secondary Education (Milton Peters College and Sundial)
Therefore WITU was able to establish that the members at the Public Schools, Catholic Schools, Methodist Agogic Centre and the Foundation for Academic and Vocational Education (St. Maarten Academy & P.S.V.E.). didn’t receive the increase that was agreed upon and mandated with the introduction of the new salary scales in February 2008.
The union further took note of the fact that a number of teachers in the various Public Schools like Oranjeschool, Leonald Connor School and Ruby Labega have not received their August salary either. After a lot of phone calls most of them were able to collect after September 21st, while these teachers have been teaching for quite some years already, so the reason for their removal from the payroll is questionable.
“To-date we still have at least one member from this group, who has not received her salary for the month of August, so this means that two months pay would be due to her.” The release continued.
The board of the WITU has not heard from the other members employed at the other school boards who didn’t apply this increase as yet, because of their status of being subsidized by the government . They will not receive their salaries until Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 or Wednesday, September 30th, 2009.
It was said to the WITU that if the monies to pay this increase of salaries is not made available to the boards by the government, then they would not be able to execute this.
WITU would therefore like to request our members to inform us immediately if this application was done .
In an effort to unify their action, the board of WITU will inform their members of any meeting to be held as soon as all the relevant information is gathered.
Initial contact with the Commissioner of Education, Mr. William Marlin informing him of this non compliance and the fact that this is now being considered by the union as a deliberate act by those responsible in Public Education, was met with no tangible explanation, however he promised to contact the head of Finance on this matter.
In the meantime the board of the WITU will continue to represent all their members in education and make sure that their rights and benefits are respected.