Email

Print

Luke Palacio- Past BNTU President "Our argument from the Belize National Teacher's Union, as it relates to proposal 22, are basically these two: one, we are talking natural justice. If the teachers at the government secondary schools are getting a 100% then we believe that our teachers and support staff and the grant aided schools should get the same. Simply because we teach the same subjects, we are governed by the same education rules and we are employed using the same processes; so, why the difference? We are setting the record straight. Our proposal 22 speaks to payment of 100%, service benefits to teachers and support staff. By support staff we are talking about bursars, our janitors, our secretaries, finance officers, security personnel that work at these schools just like those at the government secondary schools. We are not prepared to move from that position because we believe that our people really and truly deserve that. So, we are not saying to GOB that they must find that 30% but we know that if we were to really get down to the legal aspects or try and pursue that route the government in effect pays 100% of our salaries at grant aided secondary schools based on the formula they have for the secondary school financing reform and even before that."

As you heard the education minister say, Government will not pay the 30% contribution to pensions. The government has said it will assist the union in getting the church managements to pay.