TTUTA still waiting on CPO feedback

TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) president Antonia De Freitas says the union has not received feedback from the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) in terms of negotiations or another meeting since the injunction stopping it from taking industrial action.

On September 25, the Industrial Court granted the Ministry of Labour an ex parte injunction against TTUTA to stop teachers from taking industrial action the next day.

TTUTA had called on teachers to stay home on September 26 to “reflect” on stalled salary negotiations with the CPO, Dr Darryl Dindial. A few days before, on September 22, teachers were asked to work for only the second half of that day to protest the “disrespect” shown by CPO. And on September 5, the first day of the school year, teachers were asked to stay away from work.

De Freitas said the injunction was continuous and did not pertain to that Monday only.

“I will just say TTUTA is still willing to discuss matters with the CPO.”

She stressed that TTUTA was negotiating for the period of October 2014-September 2017 while the CPO wanted to give teachers four percent over two periods, 2014-2017 and 2017-2020, thereby offering two per cent for each period.

“We are only negotiating for one period at this time using the market survey which was done for 2014-2017. We have been using that methodology for many years but the CPO has moved away from that and is insisting that TTUTA takes a percentage.”

In the meantime, she said the executive would continue to speak with members for guidance so the General Council could make decisions going forward.