At a press conference yesterday, the President of the GTU, Sydney Murdock, said that teachers considered the relationship with the Ministry of Education during the strike as being one of vindictiveness and acrimony and, consequently, still have reservations about the ministry’s intentions.

He said with the agreement clinched on the terms of resumption the ministry needs to honour it “to the letter of the law” in order to restore confidence in teachers.

Murdock charged that the ministry has been violating the teaching code with respect to conditions of work at many schools. Giving examples of the violations, he mentioned poor toilet facilities, lack of water supply and size of classes, among others, adding if the union chooses to it can close 10 schools per day for those breaches.

Nevertheless, he said the GTU has been operating professionally in all its actions and will continue to do so, despite the perception that there is bitterness with the ministry.

Touching on some of the weaknesses identified within the GTU and the education system at the conclusion of the impasse, Murdock said the membership of the union needs more training and education as regards their responsibilities and rights, and as such a more concerted effort is necessary to implement more planned programmes to rectify this shortcoming.

In relation to the education system, he contended that there is not enough monitoring of school buildings and working conditions of teachers, in order to have those deficiencies corrected.

However, Murdock commended Labour Minister Dr. Dale Bisnauth for his role in breaking the deadlock between the two sides, describing him as a “gentleman” and was complementary of the efforts of the Labour Ministry in general.

On the issue of its salary proposals for 2002-2004, Murdock expressed optimism that the matter will be amicably resolved, noting that the union is asking for qualified teachers to be given another five per cent in addition to that paid out to them last year.

As regards the discontinuation of deduction of union dues by the Ministry, Murdock said the union is moving to put itself in order and already 4,000 of its members have filled up the necessary forms to authorize deductions. He added that its accounts are being scrutinized by the Auditor General.

He also indicated that the GTU would be shortly giving out strike relief to those teachers who were genuinely on strike, by paying a percentage of the money lost by those teachers during the industrial action.

The First Vice-President of the GTU, Philip Roberts, said: “In essence the impasse has done a number of good things for the teaching profession.” He opined that teachers have become more sensitized to their rights and responsibilities and he is hoping that the measures that are contained in the Education Code would be used to rectify the weaknesses.

The terms of resumption between the Ministry of Education and the GTU were clinched last Monday through mediation efforts by the Labour Ministry.