The Nassau Guardian
Minister stands by plan to cut pay of protesting teachers
Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald said yesterday he is firm in his resolve to cut the pay of nearly 200 teachers who protested with the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) on Monday.
Fitzgerald said the deductions would come out of teachers’ pay this month or October.
The minister added that every public school teacher reported to work on time yesterday and repeated that he had no plans to meet with the union under the current conditions.
His statement came as BUT executives met with officials at the Department of Labour for a conciliation meeting over six trade disputes the union has filed.
The union has warned of further action if teachers’ salaries are cut.
“Their salaries will be cut and I don’t want the union in any way to mistake my kindness for weakness,” Fitzgerald told reporters before heading into a Cabinet meeting.
“We at the Ministry of Education are very resolved in the position we have taken and we will proceed along that way.
“They will see a deduction in their pay, if not this pay day then definitely by next month after we’ve had a chance to finalize all the paperwork.”
BUT President Belinda Wilson warned in a statement on Monday that Fitzgerald “will pay the price” if he follows through on his pledge to cut teachers’ salaries.
Wilson told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that it is in the minister’s best interest to resolve the six trade disputes the union filed against the Ministry of Education and Department of Education before he creates another problem by cutting the pay of some teachers.
“If he keeps pushing, the union [will be] forced to take further action,” she said.
Wilson said her union would file a trade dispute demanding that teachers get their full salary, if their pay is cut, and urged the minister to stop acting “on emotion”.
When she spoke with The Nassau Guardian, Wilson declined to comment about yesterday’s meeting at the Department of Labour.
On Monday morning, more than 100 teachers and BUT members protested outside the Ministry of Education instead of reporting to work on time.
The teachers demanded that Fitzgerald exit the building and talk to them, and broke into song several times.
In a statement released Monday, the union said the protest was organized because of “threats” from Fitzgerald; intimidation and victimization against union officers; deductions from teachers’ salaries; breaches of industrial agreements; millions of dollars owed to teachers; school health and safety issues; teacher shortages and failure to post new teachers.
The protest came after mounting tension between the union and education officials.
Last week, Wilson and other BUT officials were blocked by police and security guards from entering Anatol Rodgers High School for a lunch time meeting with teachers. They were told to come back at 3 p.m., once classes were done.
The union said this violated their agreement with the ministry, but Fitzgerald said no agreements was breached.
The union’s protest was also fueled by the ministry’s decision not to reassign principals from two schools, Anatol Rodgers in New Providence and Maurice Moore Primary School in Grand Bahama.
Fitzgerald believes the union’s actions do not have the full support of its members.
He said only 10 percent of teachers from the two schools in question took part in Monday’s protest.
“In this instance, I don’t feel as though the president went about it the right way,” he said.
“I think she may have underestimated not only the public outrage in her actions, but also the lack of support she may have had within her own membership.”
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