We didn’t deliberately delay negotiations with teacher unions – FWSC

The Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Dr George Smith-Graham, has rejected claims that government failed to engage pre-tertiary teacher unions with urgency over their concerns.

He said the commission began negotiations with the unions in April after they initially approached it last year over issues relating to their continuous service.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse, Dr Smith-Graham said the fact that the unions were dissatisfied with proposals presented during negotiations did not mean government had failed to engage them.

“It is correct that the teachers approached us last year, when their continuous service was due to expire in December this year. That is a fact. Thankfully, the issue of continuous service does not apply only to the public service; it is also applicable in the private sector. I explained to them that it would set a precedent that would be difficult to sustain because we cannot renegotiate continuous service six months before its expiry.

“That is why we started negotiations around April. So, I heard one of your panellists say that we did not take them seriously. We engaged them. The fact that what we had on the table was not satisfactory to them did not mean that we were not engaging. We were engaging them,” he explained.

Dr Smith-Graham also defended the commission’s commitment to resolving the impasse, saying both sides entered negotiations with mandates from their respective constituencies.

He acknowledged that the declaration of the nationwide strike by the teacher unions had made the situation more difficult but said government would continue engaging the unions until an agreement is reached.

He noted that while industrial action is a tool available to the unions, negotiations remain the preferred avenue for resolving the outstanding issues.

“We will continue negotiating with them, and we believe that we’ll have a resolution to this matter.”

His comments come amid ongoing negotiations between government and the teacher unions following the nationwide strike by pre-tertiary teachers over concerns including promotion arrears and their collective agreement.