Last night you heard the thunder from the Teachers Union - who are furious with the Education Minister. At a Press Conference on Monday he said that collective bargaining over Proposal 22 was no longer live.
The Join Union Negotiating Team strongly refuted that assertion - and the teachers went further: they announced a demonstration in Belmopan for next week Wednesday, November 7th.
Today, the CEO in the Ministry of Education, DEBORAH Domingo said it's a shame the children will lose a day of school:..
Deborah Domingo - CEO, Education
"It is sad that the students will get to lose out of a day of school on November 7th. The ministry can only continue to invite the BNTU to share it's concerns as we have several times over and we remain open to taking those concerns into consideration as we continue to revisit the list of schools as they are categorized."
Reporter
"That's not the only issue that they are going to demonstrate about. The second one is the proposal 22 and the joint unions have now supported the BNTU and said that they are out two issues outstanding whereas the minister maintains it's only one. How do you bridge the gap? You guys are apart right now."
Deborah Domingo
"Well, you know one of the fortunate things about these meetings, they are recorded and so it's an easy playback for verification. There was also a commitment shared by the minister in that meeting to work along with all the other stakeholders to get the managing authorities to pay the 30% of pensionable benefits that for many grant aided institutions are not being paid. There's an obligation on the part of the proprietors and the managing authorities to meet the other 30% and that was the commitment to work along to push the managing authorities to meet them."
Reporter
"Is it that the unions are saying it's the government's responsibility to pay the additional if the management don't want to?"
Deborah Domingo
"I think it would not be in our best interest to state a position but to state our interest in resolving the matter as best as possible for all concern."
And while Proposal 22 is one labour issue, another is the one that started it all - which is the changes to the hardship allowance categorization.
The teachers say they want their national executive to meet with the Ministry brass to go through each hardship school - but the Ministry is telling them - take it to the District Education Centers. Domingo explained why:..
Deborah Domingo
"They have been asking for a meeting that would allow them to go through each one of the schools as they are categorized; which we've provided at the joint education staff relation council and it was at that meeting, the leaders of the BNTU were a part of that, said that they did not think they had the information to provide and that they are people on the ground would have been better informed. And so, the ministry then, decided, well at the ground level then, they can forward their concerns etc. through the district education managers, by the 7th, we will put all that feed back together and look at it again. What we are asking is simply feedback on how the schools are categorized, since the last effort at categorization was in the year 2000."
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