Teachers that are working in public education, the Board of the WITU took the decision to address the Executive Council on some pressing issues that affected their members.
Those issues include the discrimination in the procedure of appeal between the teachers and the civil servants and the correction of the new resolutions received by the public school teachers last week.
The discrimination in the procedure of appeal between the teachers and the civil servants.
It is understood that a number of teachers had filed an appeal in writing, because they were not in agreement with their function or their salary received since the introduction of the new salary scale.
The Board of the WITU had brought it to the Council's attention in an August 2008 meeting the fact that no responses were received by the teachers before the start of the new school year 2008/2009.
So far none of the teachers have ever received an invitation to meet with an Appeal Commission and/or to be heard with regard to their Appeal.
However, the civil servants just received their new job function and already the procedure is in place for meetings/hearings with the Appeal Committee (an independent committee). This is also according to the "Sociaal Statuut," for civil servants, which should have taken place also for the teachers in public education.
Some teachers received a response in writing, after an extension on the period of three months as was stipulated for the response and an apology for administrative glitches for more time delays, while others are unsolved up till now. For those receiving an answer, the letters were only confirming that according to the review, their salary was correct and letting them know that they should go to the judge for civil servants affairs "Ambtenaren rechter," if they didn't agree with the decision that was sent to them. No mention was made of their function at this stage.
The private school boards e.g. S.V.O.B.E., did install an Appeals Committee to handle the appeal of the teachers and held meetings where the teachers were heard.
The Board of the WITU therefore came to the conclusion that this is a form of discrimination between two groups of workers with the Executive Council as employer. In retrospect, the WITU also condemns this type of discrimination due to the fact that it's an infringement on the rights of our members in public education, and has forwarded a letter urgently requesting the Executive Council to have a review of this issue.
The correction of the new resolutions received by the public schools teachers last week.
The public school teachers had received their new resolution the week of March 16-20th, 2009. This resolution stated their function and remuneration, and also mentioned that the periodic increase would be every two years.
According to the discussion and decision in the salary scale document, this increase (loon trede) should be every year, after evaluations and not as stated every two years.
The Board of the WITU in a letter to the Executive Council has requested for these resolutions to be declared null and void and for a corrected version to be sent to their members by the week of May 4th, 2009 (just after the SXM Carnival holidays), before the end of the school year.
