Between 350 to 400 teachers attended the BUT’s meeting yesterday, which its executives claim was merely a normal general meeting.
However, Minister of Education Alfred Sears said the meeting disrupted the regularly scheduled negotiating meeting between government and the BUT.
As such, he said; this “rude” interruption cannot be overlooked.
“Having tolerated misconduct on a number of occasions, I will tell you now that there will be consequences,” Mr Sears warned.”
With him, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell echoed these comments, stating that for too long such actions have been allowed to go unhindered.
Mr Sears stated: “I hereby call on the BUT to cease and desist from any further illegal disruption of the educational system and to negotiate in a constructive and reasonable manner as required by law and which the government undertakes to do as well.
“The government has at all times acted in a reasonable and constructive manner and in a spirit of compromise, to negotiate an industrial agreement. The government will not be intimidated by any illegal acts by any group or individual and expects that all employees, especially educators, to pursue their interests in a lawful manner,” he said.
Noting that an “obvious problem” can be expected within the weeks to come, the Ministry of Education has announced that it has created a contingency plan for the possible interruption of school.
Realising that 12th graders are expected to write BGCSE exams within the coming weeks, the ministry said that if a strike were to occur, officers from the Department of Education will be in the schools to help invigilate the exams.
Noting this, Mr Sears promised that swift action will come to those who “abandoned” their posts and that their punishment will be in accordance with the regulations of the Public Service.
Mr Sears also said that government has been “quite lenient” by allowing the BUT to represent both teachers and principals under their collective bargaining agreement.
However, the BUT has hailed this recognition as one of their major victories after- the Industrial Tribunal ruled in their favour allowing them to represent both principals and teachers as they have been doing since 1965.
“We are prepared to put forward the correspondence with the union, and furthermore I think we know basic law that you have to hear both sides. We never appeared before a Tribunal. On this particular issue we were not forced by any Tribunal to concede any point. The point was that we decided that if this was an issue that was going to hold up any negotiations we would concede so that we can move forward,” he said.
Mr Sears said that government allowed this recognition on a point of “compromise” but even having comprised on this issue, the union has found additional areas to create road blocks.
He also said that even though they could have docked the pay of teachers on a number of occasions they have held their hand.
“We said this was a show of good faith, but when we reach a point when students are being injured – we cannot cross that line,” he said.
By PAUL TURNQUEST Tribune Staff Reporter
