Normalcy returns to the classrooms

Normalcy has returned to the education system as teachers end their sick-out over their contentious wage negotiation with the government.

Teachers protesting the Government’s wage offer of 16 per cent over a four-year period had been off the job since Monday.

However, they were called back to negotiate, following an emergency meeting at the Ministry of Labour yesterday.

Representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education deliberated in a marathon session in an attempt to forge common ground on the vexing matter.

President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), Georgia Waugh Richards, says progress was made at yesterday’s meeting.

She says it was agreed that negotiations will continue tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Waugh Richards says the government has agreed not to go ahead with payment of increased salary and retroactive amounts to teachers until the negotiations are complete.

The JTA had taken issue with the payment of the 5 percent increase, which will cover the first year of the four-year deal.

It says the move is unprecedented in light of the fact that the current salary negotiation has not been concluded or a Heads of Agreement signed.