WAGE TALKS between the Government and the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) will resume next Monday.
The talks were suspended because of the October 16 general election and had to await the appointment of a Minister of Finance and Planning as well as state ministers for Finance after the election.
At the last meeting between the Ministry and the JTA, on October 14, the teachers were told they would have to await the appointment before resuming salary talks.
JTA General Secretary, Dr. Adolph Cameron, commented then that the JTA wanted a new offer but it was not presented, given the circumstances. The meeting was to discuss teachers' salaries and conditions of service for the 2002 to 2004 contract period.
After the last meeting, Dr. Cameron said the JTA was not considering taking any form of action despite their rejection of a Government document responding to their claim. However, they could take action in the future, he said. In October, the JTA had given the Government an ultimatum - to come up with a "serious and realistic offer" on their 29-point claim for improved salaries and fringe benefits, presented on behalf of teachers in the public education system.
The JTA said in a statement yesterday that the association was expecting to receive a "significantly improved offer at the meeting on Monday", much better than the previous situation, where it said the Government had included offers on only seven of the 45 items submitted in the presvious JTA claim.
"It is important that negotiations are settled quickly so that the business of the education of our young people can continue without any disruptions," the JTA said.
On a similar issue, the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) is also getting ready to submit its pay and fringe benefits claim. While unable to say when nursing representatives would meet Government officials, president Iris Wilson told The Gleaner on Monday that the NAJ was working on a proposal. The association has until the end of the year to submit it.
In the meantime, Mrs. Wilson said she would be pushing for several nurses to be appointed to positions in which they had been acting for years.
"They told me that they are working on some urgent ones, persons who are due retirement soon who are not appointed," she said, adding she was compiling a list of names to submit to the Ministry. She said the list should be compiled by today and should include about 20 names that were submitted before, plus additional ones.
The Ministry of Health last month asked for six weeks after the October 16 election to make major decisions.
