A $200 increase to the hourly rate offered to part-time lecturers at Government Technical Institute (GTI) by the Ministry of Education has been rejected and a letter has since been dispatched to Chairman of the Board Norman McLean.
According to President of the Staff Association Delphine Bakker the letter was dispatched to the chairman late last week and the lecturers are awaiting a response.
Bakker, who was re-elected as president at the association’s recent elections, said they are still to decide on a way forward but the offer was unanimously rejected.
The workers had downed tools early last month over the meagre hourly rate they are paid and they had vowed to continue the action until they met Minister of Education Shaik Baksh.
However, they returned to classes after McLean informed them that the minister would have met them at the end of last month. No such meeting took place. Instead, the minister informed them, through the chairman, of the ministry’s offer.
Bakker had disclosed that the technicians are paid $175/hour and while non-graduate and graduate part-time lecturers are paid $500/hour those lecturers with Master’s degrees are being paid $800/hour.
While the ministry offered to up the non-graduate and non-graduate lecturers’ fees to $700/hour it offered the two lecturers with Master’s degrees a $400/hour increase. There was no mention of the technicians and Bakker said they had hoped those persons would have received $400/hour along with a meal allowance instead of the $175/hour.
The fact that there was no mention of the technicians was pointed out the McLean in the letter.
Bakker said they are still asking for a 100% increase and the two lecturers with Master’s degrees are seeking $2,000/hour.
There are some 60 part-time lecturers at the institution and sources have since indicated that those in charge are examining whether so many part-time lecturers are needed.
“Hours of work, timeliness, work plan and all these things are now being looked at,” a source at the institution told this newspaper.
However, Bakker said depending on what they are told this month-end they would chart a way forward on whether they would continue to work or have to down tools again.
The workers had lamented that the hourly rates they are paid have not been increased since 2000 although there have been repeated appeals to the board for an increase.
Bakker had earlier pointed out that they are not asking for too much since for almost ten years they have been working for the same money year-in, year-out while teachers and other workers have had increases.
She had noted too that the cost of living has been going up, adding that it was unfair to ask them to continue to work for the meagre sums.
Some of the lecturers put in as much as 46 hours a week at the institute and it is believed that they make up 65% of the teaching staff. Bakker has been at the institute for some 15 years and others have been there longer. They said that while they are committed to the institute and the students they also have to look out for themselves.