Teacher Doesn’t Mind Sharing “Honorarium” with Fellow Staff

Keisha Garbutt

Up to news time today, Ministry of Education officials confirmed to News Five that the one-million dollar honorarium to non-striking teachers had not been issued and that data was still being collected to determine the number of teachers and the total payout.  Now this ‘bonus’ has been lambasted by the unions and in other sectors as a form of union busting by the Government in a time of austerity.  But what do those teachers, who reported to classes during the strike last October, think about this payout?

Keisha Garbutt, Standard 3 Teacher, St. John’s Anglican Primary School

“Well for us we enjoy our job and the honorarium is not an issue for us because the two staff members that were not here, we said if we get it we will still even share with them for standing up for the rest of us. We come to school and it is not because we are threatened by the government or anybody, but everybody got their own belief. We were here present and we asked parents to send out, but they felt that they needed to stand up with teachers so they did not send their child out to school. So if the government gives us or not, it doesn’t matter.”