Teachers v govt: The deeper issues raised (again) | Editorial

By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

Public schools remain closed on Monday as public school teachers continue industrial action, started around Friday, May 2nd, over a series of outstanding payments. According to reports, the payments are due only to a few remaining members. The government, via the Prime Minister, has suggested it may only be a handful. According to the union, the industrial action was taken after clearly spelling out to the government in March that it had until the end of April to settle the arrears.

“To date, the Ministry of Education has yet to satisfy our demands despite the issue of several cheques on Friday, May 9th, 2025,” a letter from the executive to members stated on Sunday. The letter also encouraged members not to “cower to anyone who opposes any collective decision made by our union” while adding that there was “misinformation” in the public domain proffered by “cunning and crafty people” who were engaged in “deceitful scheming”.

The statements surrounding the issue have gotten more heated lately. Prime Minister Gaston Browne called the head of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers (A&BUT), Casory Charles, “a political hack” during a recent edition of the Browne and Browne show on the Labour Party-aligned Pointe FM. For context, we should say that the Browne and Browne show is a political talk show where the PM is the principal weekly guest.

The payments which are at issue reportedly relate to travel, telephone and technical vocational allowances, in addition to head of department ex gratia payments. There are many who feel justified in their belief that the teachers are reasonable, and should strike until every cent owed is paid, and there are those satisfied that teachers are being unreasonable, and should go back to work whilst progress has been made in good faith.

Observing all of this, our principal concern, apart from the well-being of the nation’s students and the fair treatment of its educators, is why the only thing that appears to quicken the pace of administration is strike action. No one can seriously have such a short memory as to have forgotten how many times we have been at this same juncture in the road over the last three or so years.

In April 2023, teachers went on strike over several issues, including various outstanding paymentsschool security, ex gratia payments, teacher upgrade payments, and talks over a new collective bargaining agreement. When it was called off, Union General Secretary, Sharon Kelsick, stated: “Some of our demands, inasmuch as they were met satisfactorily, they weren’t met 100 percent; we would have extended some grace, as we know many of these issues take time”.

In September 2024, teachers took industrial action again over outstanding payment. In this case, it had to do with the reclassification of salaries. Payments were outstanding for a small number of teachers for the period 2019-2021, prompting the entire body to take action.

A we wrote in an editorial in September 2024, union officials said at the time that since raising the matter of various outstanding payments back in April of 2023, an agreement on the issue was reached in October of 2023, but the deadline was shifted again and again, with the last shift up till then being a deadline of August 2024. When matters were not resolved by September 2024, the union took action.

Here we are a third time. Teachers are taking industrial action over the issue of outstanding payments, either exclusively or in conjunction with other matters. What’s amazing is that in each of these three cases—April 2023, September 2024, and May 2025—it has either been hinted our outright stated that part or all of the problem relates to clerical or administrative issues delaying the timely resolution of payments even though substantive decisions to make good on the payments have seemingly already been made.

In our view, this points to a broader problem in public administration and in the efficiency of our public service and the way it handles processes and people. Antigua and Barbuda’s public sector is a patchwork of various levels of efficiency. Some departments and agencies have moved on, found processes that work, and somehow manage to effectively meet the needs of the clients they serve promptly. Others simply do not.

Which of us can seriously say that we have not encountered this problem in the pubic sector when going through an application process, or trying to get approval for something, or trying to get a response on a matter, or trying to get a payment out of the treasury. Getting outstanding payments from the government, whether you are a contractor, a retiree, or an active public servant, is often said to be one of the most painstaking processes to which a person can subject themselves. Our question is why.

One of the major hurdles to development in our small country is poor governance, and part of poor governance is a lack of accountability. The fact that we have similar issues in administration arising repeatedly and lending themselves to the disruption of national affairs is ridiculous, quite frankly.

What’s also ridiculous is how the political directorate and or their supporters offload the responsibility for fixing the problems in the public service and in the delivery of goods and services to the people by the government to some imaginary authority somewhere. Every individual must be held accountable for the performance of their duties, but leaders are responsible for the performance of every individual. It cannot be right for the mantra to simply be “the Cabinet made the decision, it was the bureaucrats who failed”.

Politicians throughout the history of this country has done much to build up the public service but also to retard it. As a result, while we have many public servants and different departments that are exemplary, we have other public servants and other departments that are the absolute opposite. The responsibility for correcting this must lie ultimately with the government. This must be done through fair and transparent accountability procedures and not through unilateral targeting of specific individuals in the public service by politicians.

With all the problems facing our public service, where is the Parliamentary committee to focus on the public service? Where are the hearings and reports on the different issues being faced? How often are our elected representatives sitting with public servants in formal settings, exploring the issues that contribute to different challenges? Where is the report from the work of this committee to be presented to Parliament for incorporation into new legislation to correct issues?

Unless we are prepared to address the challenges across the service, we will find ourselves back here again and again.

About the writer:

Kieron Murdoch is an opinion contributor at antigua.news. He worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. If you have an opinion on the issues raised in this editorial and you would like to submit a response by email to be considered for publication, please email [email protected].