by Linda Straker
- Affected teachers reappointed to public sector payroll and received letters of reappointment
- Education ministry has strengthened its internal system
- Delay in payment caused Grenada Union of Teachers members to engage in industrial protest
Aaron Francois, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education with Responsibility for Education Administration announced that temporary teachers who were affected by delayed reappointment letters and salaries since August have been reappointed to the public sector payroll and have received letters of reappointment.
“On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I am pleased to report that of the 392 teachers which we indicated were up for reappointment and that we had some delay in salary payments, we can report that as of today, all these teachers have been reappointed and they have been paid their outstanding salaries,” Francois said in an interview disseminated via the Government Information Service (GIS) on 24 October.
“The ministry wishes to take this opportunity to thank all our collaborating public service partners who would have worked with us to accomplish this and also to extend thanks for the understanding of our teachers and to apologise for the inconvenience that would have caused as a result of the delay in their salary,” he said.
Giving the assurance that the problem will not reoccur, he announced that the education ministry has strengthened its internal system. “We want to assure everyone that through this painful experience, we would have learned lessons and already we have taken action to strengthen our internal systems so that an event like that will not reoccur.” Without outlining the specific reason behind the delay, Francois said that the problem is greater than the Ministry of Education, “But, we have begun the process of closer dialogue and communications with our public sector partners to make sure that the matter is fixed and resolved so that we don’t have that problem going forward.”
The delay in payment was of concern to the Grenada Union of Teachers (GUT), and in early October a decision was taken for members of the union to engage in industrial protest by wearing the union jersey to work, then escalated with union members staying off the job for one day.
