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 refuted allegations that the government delayed negotiations with pre-tertiary teacher unions. Dr Smith-Graham clarified that the commission began talks with the unions in April after they initially approached it the previous year regarding issues such as continuous service and promotion arrears.

He emphasized that the teacher unions approached him in relation to their continuous service, which was about to expire in December, and that this issue extends beyond the public sector to the private sector as well. Dr Smith-Graham explained that starting the negotiations in April was not a deliberate attempt to delay the process, as it was deemed counterproductive to renegotiate continuous service six months prior to its expiration.

He defended the commission's commitment to resolving the dispute by stating that both sides were guided by mandates from their respective constituencies. Although the teacher unions subsequently declared a nationwide strike, Dr Smith-Graham affirmed that the government would persist in engaging with the unions until an agreement was reached, emphasizing that negotiations are the primary method for resolving the outstanding issues.