Honour and respect workers’ agreement for Labour Day!

06.MAY.11

Editor: The Unity Labour Party, headed by Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, must honour and respect the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union (SVGTU).{{more}}

Editor, as Labour Day/Workers’ Day lingers, Dr. Gonsalves’ ULP government must honour its agreement with the SVGTU and immediately implement Article 16. This article, which Dr. Gonsalves himself signed, boasted about and trumpeted, must now be implemented, retroactive to January, 2011.

Trust in the office of the Honourable Prime Minister is at stake! He signs an agreement with his own hands and dishonours his name and signature by refusing to honour that agreement! I do not remember anyone holding a gun to the Prime Minister’s head when he signed the 2005 Collective Agreement. In fact, the agreement sought to formalize ULP’s policy.

Editor, what does Article 16 say? “A member of the union of at least three (3) years standing, shall on application, be granted leave-of-absence to contest National/Genereal/Local Elections. The Leave of Absence shall be no-pay leave for a period not exceeding six (6) months. In the event that the member is unsuccessful, that member shall return to his or her original post or one of equivalent status, all benefits intact. The resumption of duty must be at the beginning of a school term.”

Yes, we see there that leave shall be granted once the member applies, and the member shall return to his original post or one of equivalent status. Two l Continued from page 9

observations are important here. The first one is that the agreement commands the Chief Personnel Officer/CPO to grant leave, once the application is forwarded. It allows him/her no discretion or gaming! Secondly, it demands that the member resumes duties as a teacher in his same grade/post or to a (different) post that is equivalent.

Thus, the CPO’s advice to SVGTU that members re-appply for their jobs, and his subsequent ruling of ‘no vacancies’, are a direct violation of the letter and spirit of the agreement. Did the CPO read the Collective Agreement? Or is someone holding a remote towards his brain? Let us not forget for one moment that Tyrone Burke, the present CPO, once served as President of the SVGTU! Whatever the circumstances, it is a shameful dishonour to the Prime Minister, his Minister of Education, his Cabinet, Service Commissions, and the Chief Personnel Officer to be disrespecting workers, and legally binding workers’ agreement on the verge of May Day! History and God will judge them accordingly.

Editor, what will the government say about May Day when it so blatantly disregards its workers’ agreement and spitefully muscles up and victimizes its citizens who it grants certain rights? Today is a good day for government to reconcile with itself and do the honourable thing by honouring and implementing the Teachers’ Collective Agreement!

Otto Sam