Crawford urges teachers not to be swayed by gov't when they vote on wage offer

 

Opposition Spokesman on Education Damion Crawford is encouraging teachers not to believe the government that it is out of options for the payment of improved salaries under the new compensation regime.

 

In his opening budget presentation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke reminded outstanding pubic sector groups that if no agreement is reached before the end of this month, they will have to wait until the 2024/2025 fiscal year before any monies can be paid out.

 

But Mr. Crawford has argued if no agreement is reached this month, there are still options available to the government to make payment. 

 

"The ministry and the Minister should and could place funds currently available in escrow, which essentially states that all funds must be spent in the year budgeted, except as is provided by law, which an escrow should qualify. Additionally, the Minister can place the funds within a designated contingency within the 2023/2024 budget to be disseminated at the point of agreement whenever that is," he proposed. 

 

"Finally, we could always have an announcement of a supplementary budget with allocations and reallocations as necessary, as has been done four times last year by the same Minister," Mr. Crawford added as he urged the teachers "not to be swayed by this effort to leverage their current financial circumstances". 

 

He said the Opposition People's National Party is willing to offer legal assistance to teachers and any other group of public sector workers who believe they are being unfairly treated by the government.

 

 

Mr. Crawford has labelled as unreasonable accusations that public sector workers are playing politics with the ongoing wage talks.

 

During his budget presentation on Tuesday, the Finance Minister expressed hope that "partisan politics is not weaving its way" into the negotiations between public sector workers. 

 

Dr. Clarke said this impression has come "because of things that have been revealed in our media and on social media in recent days". 

 

But Mr. Crawford said the Minister's statement is unfortunate and baseless, given the hardships being faced by the teachers. 

 

Citing the last vote by teachers, the opposition spokesman noted that, of the 585 delegates that voted, 560 (or 96 per cent) voted against the government's wage offer. 

 

"There is no way a government with 42 seats and a clear majority in Parliament could reasonably assume that 96 per cent of any group would have been politically motivated to vote as they have. Additionally, there is no basis to reject logic and to move to malice when there is sufficient logic for teachers to be resistant of accepting what has been posited and put forward to them," Mr. Crawford asserted. 

 

Delegates of the Jamaica Teachers' Association are to vote today (Wednesday) on the government's latest wage offer.