Salary scales not going
into effect this month
~ Will be implemented from February ~
PHILIPSBURG--The scores of teachers on the island from public and government subsidized schools will have to wait a few weeks longer before they could take home heavier pay packets according to the new salary scales, which will be retroactive to August 2007.
The implementation of the new scales will not go into effect this month as previously planned. The implementation will be delayed to give the various school boards a chance to work out the necessary details.
Education Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams told reporters during Wednesday’s weekly Executive Council press briefing that the retroactive payment to August 2007 should be made by February 15, while the teachers should be paid according to the new scales by the end of February.
Correspondence to this effect will be sent to the various school boards. “The government departments and in particular the education department started to collect (the necessary) information because, in order for the school board to make the new salary table, it needed to submit all of the information pertaining to its teachers to the government department,” she explained. “The calculations would then be made as to what it would cost in total and that amount would be paid to the school board.
“From the information gathered from the school boards, it became evident that the implementation of the new system did not take place flawlessly. There were many different issues that popped up when school boards had to make these calculations.”
While the differences varied from school board to school board she said, “the bottom line remains that the teachers’ salary scale committee got together and determined that it would not be right to let the implementation go into effect per January as we had anticipated, as this would have created more confusion.”
The Salary Scale Committee comprises representatives of government, the various school boards and Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU).
