Tonight, the salaries of PSU and BNTU members, for now, remain at 100%, since the 10% cuts have yet to be applied. But those on strike have another problem to contend with: the docking of their salaries. While the PSU has proposed the idea of holding a telethon to raise funds for its striking members - whose salaries have been docked since May 17th - the BNTU wrote a letter to the managing authorities of government schools, dated May 25th. Since it is this entity that ultimately decides whether salaries will be docked, the BNTU is now asking them to consider NOT docking salaries despite the pressure being put on them by the government to do so.
In the letter, they stated that the 10% is not of tremendous concern anymore since the government is adamant about cutting it from their salaries. Rather, they are imploring that the managing authorities of the schools to consider what they are fighting for: good governance, which, according to the letter, affects the entire country.
They reminded the authorities that teachers have always gone above and beyond, even raising money for schools to offset operational costs. They are asking now that the management work with them.
However, that reminder was futile since late reports to our newsroom are that principals of government schools were instructed to proceed with docking the salaries for those teachers who were still striking after May 14th.
So, up to today, those teachers will not be paid for 8 school days. If they do not return to the classroom, Monday's pay cheque will be missing 11 days of pay.
