Salary proposals were submitted to the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) in March 2003. Negotiations actually began on January 09, 2004 after some pointed urging by TTUTA. The salary proposals involved the use of another external labour market survey (ELM survey), the adjustment of teacher salaries on par with these ELM salaries as of 2002, and then the application of additional percentage increases amounting to 35% over the three (3) year period.

Proposals for other terms and conditions of service were also submitted to the CPO. These included items such as:

­ Allowances for Additional Qualifications
­ The Master Teacher
­ Contributory Savings Plan
­ Employee Health Plan
­ Non Contact Time for Teachers in Primary Schools
­ Book Allowance
­ Travelling Allowance
­ Relief Teachers
­ Adoption Leave
­ Expansion of Isolation/Incentive Allowance
­ Expansion of Sabbatical Leave Provisions
­ Class Size
­ Payment for Unused Occasional Leave
­ Full Retirement benefits after 25 Years Service

After agreement on the comparator jobs to be used, the ELM survey was completed and a table developed of ELM salaries adjusted to 2005 for the teacher grades.

Based on all of this, the CPO has proposed salaries, but these do not represent 100% of the ELM salaries. TTUTA, on the other hand, has been insisting that the salaries proposed, especially for Grades 1 - 4, must reflect 100% of the ELM salaries.

The CPO has also been arguing that the salary of $16,500 of the Deputy Permanent Secretary, which is determined independently of the CPO by the Salaries Review Commission, must serve as a ceiling to the salaries for Grades 1 - 13.

Grades 1 - 9 cover the present posts in the Teaching (TS), while Grade 10 -13 cover the administrative and supervisory posts to be unified with the TS. Such a ceiling is being used by the CPO to compress the salary increases for Grades 1 - 9.

TTUTA maintains that teachers' salaries must not only 'catch up' with the ELM salaries but must also 'keep up' with them. We must gain substantial increases.

All teachers should rally around TTUTA and stand ready to take strong collective action, as necessary, in order to impress our collective will on the employer.

We must demand that we are remunerated in line with the vital role that we perform in the society, given that education is being considered as the engine of our development as a country.

April 2004