Vanuatu: Union, Commission and Ministry agree to action teachers claims

Vanuatu: Union, Commission and Ministry agree to action teachers claims

Vanuatu/ Abril de 2016/ Vanuatu Daily post

Resumen: El Sindicato de Maestros de Vanuatu (VTU), la Comisión de Enseñanza y el Ministerio de Educación han firmado un memorando de acuerdo para empezar a abordar el registro de larga data de las reclamaciones de los profesores que son miembros de la VTU. El acuerdo fue firmado el martes entre el Presidente de la VTU, Ansen Firiam, y el Presidente del TSC, Derek Alexander

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The Vanuatu Teachers Union (VTU), the Teaching Service Commission and the Ministry of Education have signed an a Memorandum of Agreement to start tackling the longstanding log of claims from teachers who are members of the VTU.
The agreement was signed Tuesday between the Chairman of the VTU, Ansen Firiam, and the Chairman of the TSC, Derek Alexander, and witnessed by the Director General of the Ministry of Education, Jessie Dick.
DG Jessie Dick explained to 96 BuzzFM’s Kizzy Kalsakau that the Ministry submitted another formal request to sit down with the VTU to sort out the 8-point log of claims. He added that unfortunately they couldn’t make it happen because of Cyclone Pam when most of government efforts, especially the Ministry’s efforts, were directed toward Cyclone Pam relief and reconstruction.
“Early this year, we started discussing the log of claims at the Ministry level. We saw the letters from the VTU and then we started discussing and we started contacting the Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission to make arrangements to discuss the log of claims with the Vanuatu Teachers Union.
“We had a series of meetings – one was on December 11, 2015 when all the members of the VTU came over and discussed how their log of claims could be sorted out. So, early this year, we organized another meeting which the VTU attended and we actually went through the log of claims with them.
“Following those three meetings we went through those claims and for us to really progress, we mandated the TSC to sit down and take note of what was discussed and try and frame these into an action matrix where the log of claims could be actioned,” he said.
Dick was pleased that the signing of the agreement Tuesday showed how to progress each log of claims that ranged from registration and licensing of teachers, transfer of teachers to outstanding severance payments, all of which are now being agreed to and addressed.
He added that reaching the agreement was a big milestone to arrive at the collective bargaining agreement.
“The last one signed was in 1999 when the Government had to pay off about Vt400 million towards outstanding teachers entitlements.
“I’m very glad it’s been signed today.
“The government hopes to settle all outstanding of Vt2.1 billion for all civil servants including teachers, nurses and police officers by September this year.”
VTU Chairman Firiam also agreed the signing was a milestone for VTU, especially teachers in general because all of them, not only VTU members, will benefit from the signing and the working relationship between the TSC, the Ministry of Education and VTU. He added that the agreement signed covered the log of claims that have been tabled by branches of the VTU in 2013 during their meeting held at Malapoa College.
“The claims for death in service, housing allowance for teachers living in school quarters, severance payment for retired teachers, recruitment of Fijian retired teachers, and registration and licensing of teachers,” Firiam said adding, “the signing will be good news for teachers especially those who have not yet received their severance payments.”
Chairman of the TSC Derek Alexander said VTU and TSC should be working as one team to do things because all the teachers of the TSC are members of the VTU.
“Having said that I think we have a stake in the VTU and we want to know what they are doing with the deduction of the salaries going to the VTU.
“And when it comes to the log of claims, there are a lot of claims there that we try to address together.
“This is where the agreement comes in and we’ve signed it today to address the log of claims, one of which is the transfer allowance, another is the registration and licensing the teachers, death benefit of teachers, retirements of teachers, Fiji volunteers, plus others.
“The agreement will allow address of the claims to start and to ensure that children have teachers in the classrooms,” Alexander said.
The Teaching Service Commission has altogether 3,800 teachers, making it the biggest employer in the Government

Fuente:
http://dailypost.vu/news/union-commission-and-ministry-agree-to-action-teachers-claims/article_aa046f94-b9ba-53dc-bec9-dbdd78d37bd4.html
foto:
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