B.N.T.U Says Ministry Cannot Wash Their Hands of Missing Increments Issue

On Monday, the CEO of the Ministry of Education, Dian Maheia, urged teachers who haven’t received their increments to report their cases to the ministry for help. Nadia Caliz, President of the National Teacher’s Union, backs this call and encourages union members to document any issues they’re facing with the payments. We spoke with Caliz today, and she stressed the importance of keeping the Ministry involved until every teacher gets paid.

 

Britney Gordon

“Yesterday, the ministry told us that if teachers are having any trouble with accessing these funds that have been sent to them, that they can go to the ministry. Is this a step that the union members are taking as well to file a complaint to them and have them investigate it?”

 

On the Phone: Nadia Caliz, President, B.N.T.U.

“It needs to happen because one of the things I said to Mr. Fonseca when I spoke to him, and even when I asked my executive secretary to write him,  that they need to put a mechanism in place where teachers can go and report that they have not received these funds, since they are claiming that they sent the funds to the management. So I support that mechanism, yes I do, because I want my teachers to be paid. The distribution process will be a problem because not all of the managements have the mechanism to deal with the number of persons that they have. The biggest right now, most of the complaints that we’re getting come from Catholic teachers.  The complaints were not getting increment Catholic teachers, the majority not getting allowances, Catholic teachers, majority backlog majority Catholic teachers because we asked for management. So it is clear that there is something wrong with the whole operations where the Catholic management is concerned.  If we get the complaint, let’s say five complaints within an hour, four of those will be Catholic teachers. I sound very much concerned with that too.  So yes, I want them to go report to the ministry and I want the ministry to have proper records of who they are and which management it is. It is key. Our teachers know they are at the middle of all of this. Whatever mechanism is in place, they are in the middle. They are caught in the middle. They are caught with the war between the unions, the ministry, the management. They are the recipients of this. They are the ones who need to get the increments. They are the ones who need to get the allowances. They should not be, go to this one, go to that one, go to that one. But, in an attempt to separate, I do support going to the ministry.  I do support that.  Because they need to begin to see what the union has been saying to them. They need to begin to see the true numbers.”