Public school teachers in Antigua on Friday resumed classes after days of industrial action over outstanding retroactive pay.
On Friday morning the Antigua-Barbuda Union of Teachers (ABUT) announced that classes would return to normalcy with immediate effect.
“I am happy to report that we got the final set of cheques this morning,” said the union’s General Secretary Sharon Kelsick.
The union heads called an emergency meeting that morning to move a motion to restart classes after all teachers received outstanding monies.
Negotiations were underway for some time over long requested reclassification of salaries that would increase the pay for over 300 teachers. But the payments and upgrades, due for the period 2019 to 2024, to just a handful of remaining educators went unpaid.
With this the teachers launched sit-ins, impacting the start of school for hundreds of students.
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Although the teachers are now back in the classroom, President of ABUT, Casroy Charles expressed concern over the need for industrial action to resolve such matters.
“It’s always a concern when we have to reach this point to get what is owed to us. If the only way we can get what is due to us is by engaging in industrial action, then it sends the wrong message to our membership,” he said.
In addition to the salary dispute, Charles noted that there are other unresolved issues, including the government’s failure to honor aspects of the bargaining agreement and the need to fence at least two schools.
