Public wage talks ‘serious’
Education minister outlines planned participation of various stakeholders at meeting set for OPM today
Published:Thursday | August 21, 2025 | 12:19 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) will be paying close attention to today’s meeting with union groups at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), where stakeholders are slated to discuss salary-related issues.
During her keynote address at yesterday’s session of the JTA’s annual conference in Hanover, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon told the teachers that representatives from the Government and Opposition will be in attendance at the meeting with the union groups.
“Tomorrow morning (today) at 9:30, there is a meeting of the national partnership with the unions there to discuss wages. It will be at the prime minister’s office, and we will have the unions there. We will have civil society there, and the Government and Opposition have been invited to it, so this is serious,” said Morris Dixon. “We are serious about getting to you the best offer possible.”
In an interview with The Gleaner after Morris Dixon spoke, JTA President Mark Malabver said the association’s action committee will be awaiting the outcome of the meeting to decide on what course of action it will take.
“We have not gotten any formal communication on Thursday’s planned meeting as yet, so we are awaiting that meeting,” said Malabver. “In the meantime, the delegates of the conference had the discussion yesterday (Tuesday) with respect to salaries, and the delegates have instructed me to activate the action committee of the JTA, which will take a look at the issues and determine a course of action; and then it will instruct the membership as to what the course of action is.”
ANOMALIES TO BE ADDRESSED
“The minister has made some pronouncements, and clearly, she is not the minister of finance, but she has carried a message to the conference. We will go to that meeting, where we will hear what is on the table and we will take part in the in those discussions; and then we will come back to our members and have further deliberations with them,” added Malabver.
In her presentation, Morris Dixon said Malabver had spoken to her about anomalies from the last negotiation, and that those anomalies will also be addressed.
“It is not just the go-forward position, but it is also addressing some anomalies that you have found. And it is not just you, it is also you and other public-sector workers that have seen that,” Morris Dixon said. “We are committed to giving you the best possible offer. You do not need to look at that zero, so do not look at that zero. In terms of what the ministry is doing, we are going to continue to support you.”
Morris Dixon’s announcement is the latest update in the contentious wage negotiation saga between the JTA and the Government. The teachers’ representatives recently walked out of a meeting with Finance Minister Fayval Williams after rejecting a four-year wage offer in which they were offered zero per cent in the first year and 2.5 per cent in each of the remaining three years.
At the start of the three-day conference earlier this week, it was suggested that Jamaica’s teachers could take industrial action if the salary offer was not revised.
However, on Wednesday, Malabver expressed a desire to see the relationship between the Ministry of Education and the JTA remain respectful, with both sides working together to protect the interest of the nation’s educators.
“Minister Morris Dixon has indicated that she will represent us, and we are happy for that. We have always believed that we should have a harmonious relationship with the Ministry of Education, and she has committed to nurturing that,” said Malabver. “Of course, in the business of unionism, there will be some push and pull, but we do so in a spirit of respect whenever we step out to represent our members.”
Meanwhile, former JTA President Jasford Gabriel told Wednesday’s meeting that the zero per cent offer as part of the four-year wage plan should not have been considered in light of Jamaica’s track record of losing teachers to migration for better-paying jobs overseas.
“We could not conceive that in an era where there is a growing economy, and also where the reality is that we are losing teachers in droves, with the single most important reason for that being remuneration, that it would even be contemplated that an offer of zero per cent is made to teachers. Over the four years, the average increase would be less than two per cent, and that to me is tantamount to a wage freeze,” said Gabriel.