The Dominica Teachers Association (DAT) has become the final union on the island to accept government’s salary increase of five percent of the period of 2012 to 2015.
However, the DAT has a condition that a special committee be set up within one month for the appointment of teachers through government’s job classification exercise.
The deal was hammered late Tuesday and DAT said it is “satisfied” with the outcome of negotiations.
Speaking to Kairi FM News, late Tuesday evening, Vice President of the DAT, Francis Jno Lewis, stated that during negotiations the DAT felt there were issues that need addressing.
Some of them include teachers who have been in the system for over 10 years and has not been appointed and in other cases there are some teachers have gone on to obtain their Bachelors and Masters degrees and have returned but are working without being appointed.
“Many of these issues we felt that would be overlooked by just saying yes to the five percent and these issues we wanted to be kept on the table,” he said. “As a union, we feel very satisfied that in terms of moving forward that the objective of our purpose for saying no to the five per cent have finally been met and the teachers of this country can be assured that the Dominica Association of Teachers will continue to look to their interests and not just have the serious nature of the teaching service to be overlooked when it comes to negotiations.”
Jno Lewis said DAT can now move on as Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, has indicated that the special committee will be set up to look, with immediate effect, into the issues and concerns expressed by DAT.
The chairperson of the committee will be appointed by the Prime Minister and will report directly to him.
“We consider that we have a break-through in terms of moving forward,” he noted.
Meantime Jno Lewis is describing as “unfortunate” the loss of some teachers from the DAT during the salary negotiations.
He said these teachers were “impatient” and “short-sighted”.
“Some members failed to be critical thinkers and recognize the purpose of the union,” he stated. “Nonetheless, we are going to look even if they have left. We have succeeded in taking their issues to be looked at through a special committee and will continue to represent the interest of the teachers of the country.”
The PM had an obligation to save Celia from embarassment for holding the other unions ransom during the negotiations. When I saw the DAT President on Marpin news trying to take a snipe at PSU General Secretary Thomas Letang by saying that the 5% was not NEGOTIATED but was given aid that woman don’t have a clue. Negotiations are about offer and acceptance and both parties had different positions and every move was an offer. The government then moved from 0-0-0 to 3-1-1 as part of the overall negotiation process. Celia needs to STOP her silly politics and focus on representing her teachers.
On one hand you may be right, but accepting 3-1-1 just because is a move from 0-0-0 is not representation…and there are numbers of qualified teachers who are still not appointed to the service and therefore not eligible for the level of pay that is rightly due to them is a selfish process. DAT did a benefit even to the teachers who left the association as they are more likely to get an appointment now and will see more dollars as a result. The PWA did not accept the increase without making additional stipulations, but that’s what PSU did. Dominicans must see beyond the $50 today to the possible $100 that could come with a little patience
Appointment of teachers who are qualified is simply a supervision issue and one of selectiveness or non-selectiveness.
Once teachers are qualified and perform and appraisals are done on time, supervisors (education officers) should make the recommendation and politicians and PSs should not select who should be and who should not be appointed.
This issues is only now surfacing and its an administrative issue.
DAT must stop playing games; remember! they wanted 2%, principals to be travelling officers and regardless of the results of the classification report, wanted all teachers to move up one level. I believe teachers deserves better, but DAT is not doing them justice.
They never sighted the appointment issue before, in any of their public statements.
They accepted because if they didn’t they would have lost many more members this month end! chaaaa
Wonder what President Savarin former Trade Unionist who directed the overthrow of the DLP, 1977-1979. It is clear in the national history Charlo used the CSA to arrive at Eugenia’s objective in 1980 & and his long term goal the one he now holds) think of Union bargaining today?
he had to clear a party hurdle to get there- Morphing from Freedomite( Sounds like a termite right?)
But in politics strange things happen. I wonder if our artists with doctorates can explain how does green turn into red? certain mixes give obvious colours but green could never turn red. Moses parted the waters the bible tells us but the water was colourless (not green) before turning red.
If by chance we are able to remove the hemoglobin in the Neo-DLP/DFP , then maybe it would be green or colourless .
ITS SEEM YOU DONOT UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICS.WHO FOUNDED THE LABOUR AND FREEDOM PARTIES?Everyone have their right to join any party .Look through the histroy of politics on a global scale.The majority of the civil service supported Charles Savarin 100 percent.Even those who is against him now played a major part.Look into the mirror.
DNO I thought when you reduced the length of comments to 1000 characters, we would see an improvement in the area of moderating. To my surprise you seem to have gotton worse as many of our blogs never get published and the few you choose to publish is not done in a timely manner. Is it a deliberate decision to ensure our criticism of Skerrit and his administration are reduced? Are you under threat too?