JTA president optimistic about upcoming salary negotiations

Despite the challenges of the recent past, Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver says he is cautiously optimistic that the Government will make the association a reasonable offer when they meet for their next round of salary negotiations on May 20.

“I am optimistic that the Government has seen the merit of our case. We believe that we have made a very strong case to them in terms of key items on the list of claims, and we continue to maintain that our teachers must be paid a salary in keeping with their value and their worth,” he said.

Malabver expressed the view during an interview with The Gleaner, following his address at the JTA’s Helen Stills Professional Development Day for Teachers, which was recently held at the Grand Palladium Hotel in Hanover.

“I am optimistic that the Government will come to us with an improved offer before we go back to the negotiation table on May 20 … . We expect a new offer,” he said.

According to Malabver, at the last negotiations between the JTA and the Government, the JTA was told that they will receive a new offer within two weeks, and it is now approaching the end of the first week.

He said that when the new offer is received, it will be examined and a discussion will be held at the JTA’s salaries and condition of service committee level, before being presented to the wider teacher population.

“This negotiation is more like a fight for social justice, because there are so many inequities within the system,” said Malabver, in supporting the view that how a nation treats its teachers is a direct reflection of whose labour they value, and whose interest they are prepared to safeguard.

“Education has always been seen as the vehicle for social transformation, yet it is being sustained by a workforce that is undervalued and underpaid,” he said, noting that Jamaican teachers continue to be among the lowest paid in the Caribbean, which is a matter of inequity as far as the JTA is concerned.

Malabver also drew reference to the fact that because of their impressive résumés, recruiters from the United States and the United Kingdom always come to Jamaica in search of teachers.

“We are high-performance teachers, and when we are placed in a system that is very well resourced, the results are seen in these countries, or anywhere you go in the world, where you find a cluster of Jamaican teachers; and at award ceremonies, it is the Jamaican teachers that always dominate those ceremonies,” he said.

In referencing the fact that Jamaican teachers are operating in a country in which it is believed that some quarters of the society are ungrateful for their work and worth, Malabver said the teaching profession is the foundation of every single career that is present across the country.

“You cannot expect a teacher to be in the classroom, operating at his or her optimal level, and his or her basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are not being met. Our teachers are struggling financially,” he said, arguing that the teachers are giving the profession their all in every respect, yet they are not being duly compensated for their level of commitment and services.

Malabver said there will be no deal between the Government and the JTA if what is presented by the Government in its new offer does not address certain “dealbreaker” items that are on the JTA’s list of claims. 

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