Patrick Faber to Meet with B.N.T.U. Leadership

Back to the B.N.T.U.’s plight…Minister of Education Patrick Faber is scheduled to meet with the executive of the union on Monday.  The Deputy Prime Minister told News Five that he anticipates that the meeting will culminate in a resolution to the many concerns raised by disgruntled teachers.  In respect of Prop Twenty-Two, Faber says that the ministry has been on the same page with teachers despite the perceived hostility.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“You know that I have extended an invitation to sit with the core of the union executive on Monday.  It is my hope that we can seriously decide on how we can move forward.  If it is that they feel that I am the issue, I am the problem, then let’s talk about how you will sit with the senior management of the ministry.  But this, in my view, can be resolved.  It is never that we’ve not afforded them an opportunity to share their views and their concerns about their hardship allowance.  It is not that we are at some kind of difference in terms of even Proposal Twenty-two.  We’re not saying anything different, we’re agreeing on the issues that they have brought to say that that is the case.  I am telling them that that is the case.  And on the issue of the allowances they’re talking about allowances that ought to have been applied for and maybe the management or the teachers themselves did not apply for those allowances when it was that the government made a call for everybody, including other public servants to justify why it is that that allowance is needed.  That we can sit down and talk about too.”

B.N.T.U. wrote to Prime Minister Barrow on Monday asking him to intervene in the situation with the Ministry of Education.  The union says it has since heard from PM Barrow but it is awaiting a formal response in the days ahead.