Reconfirmed: 10% to be returned to Teachers & Public Officers

Francis Fonseca

Today, the Minister of Education Francis Fonseca, one of government’s lead negotiators when dealing with the Joint Unions Negotiating Team, reconfirmed that come July first, public officers and teachers who suffered a ten percent salary cut last year, will see their salaries returned. But there are other discussions on the table.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“We have had very positive good faith discussions with the joint unions from the beginning. I have always made it a point to put on the record our gratitude to the trade unions for the mature manner in which they have engaged in discussion with us. They were painful decisions and since that announcement, I can tell you that they obviously welcomed that decision. They are happy to have the ten percent returned; obviously they never wanted it to happen. And so they welcomed that, but obviously they want us to continue working together on other serious challenges that are facing the country. The work is not done. Our discussions and consultation will continue. We have a lot of work to do on constitutional reform, governance reform. We have other issues that we have to discuss – the collective bargaining agreement that exists that there are still some points on hold in respect of that. So there are a lot of things that we are committed to working on together, but obviously they are very happy about the fact that we have been able to return the ten percent two years early.”