00:00Teachers in Tobago got their salary increases in April and the retroactive payment for March,
00:06which is when most educators were initially paid their increments.
00:09This has resulted from the collective agreement signed in April of 2025 under the former administration.
00:15But President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Crystal Bevan-Ash,
00:21indicates that the matter is far from settled.
00:23With respect to the back pay, nobody has received, neither Trinidad, Tobago, any one of us have received anything with
00:31respect to the back pay.
00:32We have had no communication from the Ministry of Finance.
00:35The Ministry of Education, in our last meeting, we had a meeting with them just last month,
00:39and what they indicated to us is that they did their part in terms of the calculation.
00:43They have some auditing to do to ensure that everything is above board, and they were, at that time, 40
00:48% complete.
00:49According to Tutor, that process is expected to be concluded around mid-June.
00:54Once that is done, the outstanding money can be paid to educators.
00:58However, what they also indicated to us is that there was no direct instruction given by the Ministry of Finance
01:05to release the money, to give it to the Ministry of Education,
01:08because the money has to come from the Ministry of Finance and be given to the Ministry of Education
01:12so that they can allocate the payments.
01:14So that's where we are at this point in time.
01:16We have still not received any information from the Ministry of Finance,
01:21neither the Ministry of Education directly, in relation to the back pay or to educators
01:25for that period 2020 to 2023.
01:28Tutor is pointing to a potential loss of purchasing power as the time continues to pass by.
01:34But this is, in essence, also stalling any commencement of talks with the Chief Personnel Officer
01:39pertaining to the 2024 to 2027 collective bargaining period.
01:43We haven't submitted a proposal yet. It doesn't work like that.
01:47What happens is that you make sure you get the money for the last period first.
01:51You get your set-lap and everything.
01:53And then we maintain to negotiate for the other period.
01:56Tutor states that it does have a pending meeting with the CPO
02:00to treat with getting staff on the third schedule onto the grade system.
02:05That would be the school supervisors, the curriculum officers, the student support services,
02:09the DERE personnel, getting them on what they call the schedule, getting them on the grade system.
02:15So right now, teaching service operates in terms of grades, from grade one to grade nine.
02:21We want to, we will be carrying them up to grade 13.
02:24Because they were initially under the public service payment arrangement,
02:28Ash says it can redound to a promotion on paper, but a demotion in pay.
02:33I can give you an example. Crystal Ash, I was one of those persons who left principalship,
02:38came into supervision, and received a substantially less amount of money in terms of my salary.
02:45And so Tutor is looking forward to the resolution of that as well.
02:49Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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