Bahamas Union of Teacher President Belinda Wilson said she is wondering when negotiation on the new industrial agreement between the union and The Ministry of Education will begin.
Her comments come just a few weeks after Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd told reporters outside cabinet the negotiations had begun.
Sounding off on the issue, Mrs. Wilson said that a lot of times Ministers would present information that is not correct.
“The Bahamas Union of Teachers presented an agreement to the government of The Bahamas through the Minister of Education on June 20th, 2018.
“To date, I do not have a counter proposal. I do not have any information from education as to who are the members of their team and we do not have a counter proposal.
“However, I can promise you that they will get a letter by Monday and will be given seven days to come to the table,” she said.
The Union’s trade agreement expired on June 30th 2018. If the Ministry does not come to the table within the seven days, that will be indicated in the letter, Mrs. Wilson said they will have to file a trade dispute.
“It’s sickening that we cannot follow the policies or the laws that are presently in place and what is even worse is when education or the government does not communicate with you.
“If you presented them with a document nine months ago and they are having a challenge getting us a counter proposal, then write to us formally as we wrote to you formally and we presented a draft proposal to you formally.
“So, write to us and say because February 7th was the deadline for them to present to the counter proposal to use, but it’s almost April 7th,” she said.
Mrs. Wilson added that the issue with the Ministry of Education is not communication with the Minister, but the problem she said is with persons under the Minister who do not do their work in an effective manner.
She said, “a lot of times the technocrats get off of the hook because we focus so much on if the President and the Minister are speaking, they don’t need to speak to me.
“What I need is that when there is a problem concerning our members, it is dealt with in a timely and efficient manner.
“What I need is, if there are monies owed to our members, then make sure it placed in the budget and they are paid.
“What I need is when we give them recommendations that make sense based on a policy that they may send to us, then sit with us, go through our recommendations,” said Mrs. Wilson.
