80 Percent of Delegates Accept New Wage Offer

Delegates of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) at a specially called virtual delegates’ conference held Sunday, voted to accept the latest wage package offered by the government. 80 percent of the delegates accepted the wage offer following the last offer that was refused last week. Teachers across the island recently staged a sit-in demanding better wages.

Accepting the new wage offer on behalf of the teachers were 629 delegates or 80 percent of the 784 eligible voters. Rejecting were 147 or 19 percent of the eligible voters. Abstaining were 8 persons or 1 percent of the eligible voters. Just last month at another delegate meeting, 560 of them rejected the offer while 24 accepted.

Last week teachers in various schools across the island protested by way of a sit-out, as a means of garnering attention from the government. Following the vote, the JTA, through the secretary general, Dr. Mark Nicely wrote to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Nigel Clarke conveying the wishes of the delegates who represent the 78 district associations islandwide.

On Monday President-elect of the JTA Layton Johnson signed off on the new agreement at the Ministry of Finance and Planning. Johnson says the agreement comes as a relief to teachers.