By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

The current impasse between the nations public school teachers, represented by the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers (A&BUT) and the Ministry of Education over outstanding payments due to a handful of members seems to be a near exact repeat of a situation that occurred around April of 2023, more than a year ago. Apparently, that’s because it is.

Then, as now, teachers staged a sit-in at the beginning of a new term due to a delay by the government in completing a series of retroactive payments related to upgrades due to teachers as a result of reclassifications (among other things). Then, as now, the government’s officials said the majority of teachers got their dues, and only some remained.

Then, as now, fingers have been pointed at the Treasury and at the Ministry of Education, and questions asked about the efficiency with which these payments have been handled. Then, as now, the government is hinting that administrative and clerical delays are at fault. How can that be? If this is effectively the same issue from April of 2023, then it’s been a year and four months.

We at antigua.news are asking: Could this not have been avoided? There seems to be an implementation deficit in government-teacher relations. This is the second time that clerical or administrative delays seem to be prompting the nation’s teachers toward industrial action over the same tranche of outstanding payments. How many months should it take to resolve outstanding payments to a few teachers?

Union officials have said that since raising the matter in April of 2023, an agreement on the issue of outstanding payments was reached in October of 2023, but the deadline has shifted again and again, with the last shift to August 2024 being reportedly unilateral, which is to say, without consultation with the union.

There is an urgent need for the government to address what seems to be an implementation deficit that has followed various agreements and dialogues with the union. If the challenge lies with some department at the ministry, or information which has not been updated, or whatever, it needs to be determined and resolved. What is the point of sitting for negotiation and coming to agreement if the implementation of what is agreed misses successive deadlines?

It negates the point of the entire exercise and creates mistrust and bad faith between teachers and their employer. It places the education system in a position where whenever teachers want something done, they may feel that getting it done necessitates industrial action as they no longer trust their employer to meet deadlines.

Remember too, a new collective bargaining agreement was reached in April of 2024 and it was announced that teachers had gotten a 14 percent pay increase to include retroactive provisions. Will the nation have to endure disruptions as the deadlines promised in relation to that agreement are pushed back, missed, pushed back, and missed, again and again?

Teachers are entitled to their dues and the respect of having their patience and good faith rewarded by deadlines being met.

Disruption to the education system throws off students, parents, teachers, the government, transportation, after school activities and much else. If such disruptions can be avoided by identifying and rectifying whatever causes an implementation deficit to occur when an agreement has already been made, then those elements need to be identified and fixed.

Is the Minister of Education not tired of waking up to news of teachers’ taking action over issues that he or his technicians have already sat and reached agreement on? What is he doing to arrest it? How can this be good enough? Accountability, it seems, is a major issue in some quarters of the public sector, and the end result is disruption to the smooth flow of national affairs. How long will this culture be tolerated?

About the writer:

Kieron Murdoch worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. He is an opinion contributor at antigua.news.

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 staff@antigua.news.