‘Massive win’ for teachers

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to disburse annual increments at the end of this month, the president of the association, Dr Mark Smith, has disclosed.

Describing it as a “massive win”, Smith told The Gleaner that the commitment was made during a recent meeting.

“There was an agreement reached that the increment would be paid effective the end of April, so there’ll be three increments for the three years dating back to 2022,” he said.

“We made it absolutely clear that that was non-negotiable and in the spirit of fairness and transparency, the ministry acquiesced to our request, along with that of the Joint Confederation of Trade Unions,” he added.

In February, the JTA threatened strike action to protest the slow pace of salary negotiations, and the non-payment of graduate and retroactive travel allowance.

Smith shared that the travel allowance has since been paid to the vast majority of teachers, and that some graduate allowances have also been paid.

However, while he is feeling optimistic that concessions are being made on the payment of future graduate allowance, a resolution has not yet been finalised. Smith said the matter has been referred to the Attorney General’s Chambers for them to review the position.

Geopolitical tensions

At the same time, Smith said the union is also monitoring the current state of geopolitics with concerns about how it might impact their negotiations.

Geopolitical tensions escalated following US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose universal tariffs on several countries, including Jamaica, which will now face a 10 per cent tax on its exports to the United States.

Trump said the tariffs were designed to boost domestic manufacturing, but experts have warned that the global economy could enter a recession by the end of the year.

“Many of the global economic markets have been upended, and we have been too frequently told by our governments, whether JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) or PNP (People’s National Party), to make serious concessions for the good of the nation and the teachers, like many of the public-sector workers, we ban our belly, we went through it, the austerity issues, and now we’re at a point where people are signalling, ‘Oh, look what’s happening, all the instability globally and what does that mean for negotiations’,” he said.

However, he is hopeful that the Andrew Holness-led administration, which has since encouraged manufacturers to explore new markets, will be calculated in how it deals with the anticipated impacts.

“We have to understand that public-sector workers have really been put under pressure over several years, and while we conceded that we operate within a global context, we’re hoping that the Government will be very strategic in terms of navigating much of the issues that are plaguing the global economy now,” he said.

Smith, in the meanwhile, said the JTA is still awaiting clarity from the Government on how the performance-based pay system, which would inform the payment of future increments, will work.

Performance-based pay for teachers means a portion of their salary or bonuses are tied to their performance. This is often measured by student outcomes or other metrics, aiming to incentivise improved teaching and student achievement.

While outlining that the JTA is in full support of accountability and efficiency, Smith said any performance-based salary mechanism that is introduced must be based on a model that is “fair and transparent”.

“We believe that there is a great degree of inequity in the system. I think a lot of those issues must be tackled before we can truly and effectively implement a pay-by- performance model; we await the proposal first,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referenced the annual increments as retroactive payments.)